Abe Vrobinres.
The Collegiate Institution of Liverpool, in Shaw Street, was-opened on Friday, with much ceremony. The Institution is a large build- ing, comprising three day-schools to accommodate the three great classes of society, with separate apartments, playgrounds, divisions of the lecture-hall, and so forth. The foundation-stone had been laid by Lord Stanley on the 22d October 1840. A procession from the Town-hall was now announced to celebrate the opening, and Lord Stanley was to have spoken the inaugural address : the procession took place, but it was in close carriages, and the order of march was very ill observed ; and Lord Stanley was kept away by public business. How- ever, there was a numerous attendance ; and the company boasted the presence of the Bishop of Chester and several clergymen, the Mayor, Sir Howard Douglas, M.P., Mr. Wilson Patten, M.P., and a great number of the Town-Council ; and Mr. William Ewart Gladstone was a very efficient substitute for Lord Stanley in the delivery of the inaugural address. He started from the position that the state of our political institutions demands education for all classes- " It is admitted upon all hands, it is boasted by some, it is received with satisfaction by others, it is denied by none, that we have arrived at a stage in the progress of society in which you must give a broad basis to public institii. _ tiona—in which you must interest in them, and in which you must challenge for them, the approbation and support of the mass of the intelligent com- munity. We live under a Monarchy, we live under an Aristocracy, we live in daily enjoyment of the blessings of the National Church ; but how are these institutions supported ? The Church does not stand upon the footing of superstition ; the Monarchy and the Peerage are not supported by violence ; it is not the bayonet of the soldier which is the guarantee of the permanence of our institutions. True it is, indeed, that prescription is a principle of weight and value in civil affairs; true it is, that Englishmen aredistinguished among the nations of the earth, not only by an indomitable energy, but likewise by a dislike to idle and unnecessary change, and by a reverence for the traditions of their fore- fathers. All these things have hitherto been proved; and I trust we have not yet arrived at the period when they can be denied to exist. But it is also true that the constitution of this country calls upon the People for their free and their intelligent support; it is also true that extensive franchises are committed to numerous classes of the population ; it is also true that without the intelli- gent assent and attachment of those numerous classes to whom I advert, the institutions of the country could not be supported. Those, therefore, who in their sphere—be it more or less extensive, and I, as one of the least among them—those who are appointed to watch over the laws and institutions of the country—they know, (at least they ought to know, the best of all men,) that inasmuch as we must look to the great mass of the intelligent community for the means of upholding our institutions, of supporting the Throne and the Aris- tocracy, of supporting the Church, of supporting all which some men admit to be relics of the dark ages, but which we believe to be sound in their principles and ought to be deeply rooted in the affections of the people ; public men, I say, ought of all others to know best how important it must be so to train the minds of the population in sound and useful knwledge—in knowledge which will really bear the criterion of a searching examination, and not in that which, unfortunately, too often passes by the name of sound and useful know- ledge without pretension to the substance."
But secular education should be based on religious instruction-
" Although it be important to supply every man with the means of honour- able and successful pursuit of his earthly calling, yet there is something which is far more important still: the great purpose of education, the first and para- mount purpose of education, is not so much to supply a man with the tools and instruments whereby he may fashion all things to his pleasure, but it is to fashion and to mould man himself. It is to act upon the object in forming his mind ; it is to develop his faculties ; it is to cherish the imperishable seed of life eternal, that he may be conscious of the true law of his condition, and that he may not bound his views to temporary and perishing objects, but that, re- cognizing that which was the state of his First Parents before their fall, he may likewise recognize the great and the absorbing truth, that to recover that state is the great end of his being upon earth. But, as anion with God was the law of his original nature, so reunion with God is the great purpose for which he is now placed upon earth ; and to which not the Christian religion alone, but likewise the whole experience of life, all that befalls him in it, his domestic position, his social position, whatever is his, whatever is around him, it is one great discipline, devised by Divine wisdom for the purpose of contri- buting to the accomplishment of that great work the renovation of the nature of God in a race that was fallen away.'
Accordingly, the Collegiate Institution was intended to communicate to the rising generation, as the rules declared, "sound religion in con- nexion with useful learning."
An Anti-Corn-law tea-party was held at Bolton last week, to receive the deputation of the League ; and the meeting was addressed by Mr. Brotherton, Dr. Bowring, Mr. Lawrence Heyworth, Mr. John Brookes, and Mr. John Bright. The main feature of the evening was the read- ing of a letter from Mr. Peter Ainsworth, Dr. Bowring's colleague in the representation of the borough, announcing his defection. He said-
" Having given my assent in the last session of Parliament to the new Tariff, sanctioning the principle of protection to the manufacturing, the mining, and the agricultural interests of this country, I feel that I cannot, with any degree of justice, exclude the growers of corn from a participation in the advantages of similar protection. I consider that they have an equal claim for protection upon the Legislature, and that it will be impossible to refuse to them the im- position of a moderate fixed duty upon the import of corn."
Mr. John Bright observed, that in that very room, two years ago, Mr. Ainsworth pledged himself to vote as Mr. Villiers voted. What protection had the manufacturing isaterest?—
Did they not sell their goods cheaper than anybody else?? The fact was, they had no protection, and they wanted none ; and what had been offered in the new Tariff was a mere delusion, like the item in the old one which im- posed a tax upon coals taken to Newcastle-upon-Tyne : yet upon this ground, it appears, one of their Representatives was content to fix upon them a tax of 20,000,000/. in return for a mere shadow. If he were a convert, why did he not resign, and start on the other interest ?
The Guardians of the Plomesgate Union have been assessed at 3001. to the Property-tax for the workhouse at Wickham Market! The Guardians appealed against the assessment on the ground that the workhouse was not assessed to the poor-rate, and therefore was not liable to Property-tax. The Surveyor contended, that although not rated, it was liable to be taxed ; but it afterwards turned out that it was assessed to the poor-rate at 300/., but the Guardians having refused to pay, and the Magistrates declining to grant a distress-warrant unless upon a mandamus, it had been left out of the rate-book, and no rate since demanded. Exemption was then claimed under the 61st section of the act, on the ground that it was a public building—in fact, an
• hospital ; but the clerk to the Commissioners read from a book (pro- bably the Income-taxers' Guide) that a workhouse was not an hospital, and the assessment was confirmed. Mr. Dallenger, who appeared for the Guardians, said that as the building was erected by loans from Government, he should recommend the Guardians to deduct the tax from the interest.—Bury Post. On Thursday last, a meeting of the parishioners of St. John, Fal- mouth, was held in the Vestry in that parish ; Mr. John A. Bale, War- den, in the chair ; when resolutions were adopted in opposition to the Income-tax, and surcharges that have followed upon it ; the former being characterized as " unnecessary and inquisitorial" • and it was further resolved, "that we (the meeting) do use all lawful endeavours to get the Government to forego its collection, and invite the coopera- tion of others in these efforts."—Falmouth Packet.
At the Essex Quarter-Sessions, in the Shire-hall, on Tuesday last, a report was made from the Visiting Justices, as to what had been done in Springfield Gaol, in deference to the recommendations of the Prison- Inspectors— " At a meeting of the visitors specially. called to meet Messrs. Crawford and Russell, Inspectors of Prisons, after hearing their statement of the prevalence of scurvy in the gaol at Springfield, it was resolved that the diet of the pri- soners in that prison be altered, so that all prisoners sentenced to more than three months' imprisonment be entitled to the allowance of meat from the time of sentence, and those sentenced to three and more than two months should receive the allowance of meat from the expiration of two months of their sen- tence ; and that the time for the winter clothing and additional quantity of
i
of coals should hereafter commence the first week in October, annually. At a subsequent special meeting, held on the 26th November, the report of the In- spectors to the Secretary of State was read and considered ; and it was ordered that the prisoners should have bread made of flour dressed through No. 8 cloth instead of No. 3, and that each prisoner, after two months' confinement, should have in addition three ounces of onions and one pound of potatoes weekly. At another meeting, held on the 14th December, Major Jebb, at the suggestion of Sir James Graham, attended, and Mr. Hopper was requested to meet him in order to provide a method of warming the cells; which, in consequence of Dr. Shortt's report, the Secretary of State required to be done immediately. Major Jebb was requested to undertake to warm one of the divisions, Nos. 5 and 6 with an Arnott stove, and flues and gratings ; and in consequence of Dr. Shortt's report, the stone seats are ordered to be covered ;with wood, and that the improved diet be increased from two to six ounces of animal food three times a week; and that all prisoners, except vagrants, be clothed in flannel shirts, and an additional pair of stockings be given to each prisoner; that the bread shall not be altered to a fine kind, but the cloth No. 3 be crn.inned to be used. The visitors cannot conclude their report without calling the atten- tion of the Court to the crowded state of the prison and the dimensions of the cells, with the difficulty of ventilating them in such a manner as the Inspectors deem requisite. Annexed are copies of the letters from the Secretary of State, and the reports of the Inspectors of Prisons." Several Justices were careful to call to mind, that at the time when Springfield Gaol was built, it was considered to be constructed on the most approved model. After much discussion, with a view to further consideration of the whole subject of the prisons, it was resolved- " That the Visiting Magistrates of the Gaols be requested to consider the defects in the gaol at Springfield, as noticed in the reports of the Inspectors; and, after communicating with the County Surveyor and Major Jebb, report to the Court of Quarter-Sessions, on the state of the gaols, taking care in any suggestions to have their attention directed to the abandonment and sale of the Chelmsford Gaol, and all the prisoners and debtors to be placed together in one gaoL"
A fatal accident s occurred on the North Midland railway, on Thurs- day. Whilst the train which left Leeds for Derby at five o'clock in the morning was waiting at the Barnsley station, it was ran into by a goods train, and a passenger lost his life. He was a Mr. Harvey, and was travelling for the house of Finlay and Co. of Glasgow. The stoker had his hand fractured ; but no other person sustained any injury. The engine and carriages were much damaged.
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