At home there is no substantial novelty, but only a
new colour- ing upon old subjects. It is probably for this dearth of matter that so much has been made of the educational pageant at Cam- bridge, for which the opportunity was, given by Prince Albert's visit as Chancellor of the -University, to show that ancient seat of learning to his relative the heir-apparent of King Leopold. Cam- bridge is the more reforming of the two great Universities ; Prince Albert was opposed at his election, in 1847, by a minority, which now joins cordially in his welcome ; he has become a leader of practical education in the country, and in the course of this visit he attended two lectures on practical subjects—geology and me- chanics : educational reformers hail the series of omens.
A sign is furnished in another part of the educational line, in the opening of the Bury Athenaeum, with the intelligent speech of Lord Stanley, on the use of knowledge, the necessity of studying it disinterestedly, and the generous spirit in which the richer classes may present, and the poorer may receive, such gifts as books. Lord Stanley's speech is better than " original"—it is a modest and lucid repetition of truths which it is most desirable to extend in this very day. Such feelings and such knowledge are the best counteractives of social difficulties like the continued " strike " in Lancashire, and the agitation of professed demagogues, who are trading on a prolongation of the contest, and getting up a "Labour Parliament" for the pur- pose. We can anticipate no fruits from an assembly thus delu- sively styled, or summoned by its conveners. The working classes, however, will be a prey to these trading agitations in proportion as they remain uninformed. The Commission inquiring into the Corporation of London City comes upon better and more substantial evidence as it advances. The antiquated, obstructive, and injurious complicity of juris- dictions within the City, has been clearly anatomized by Mr. Pal- ling ; Mr. Bennoch, a member of the Common Council, has ex- plained the lavish expenditure and its comparative inutility ; and has propounded a plan for uniting the whole Metropolis in a federa- tion of Municipalities, generally coincident with the Parliamentary Boroughs ; a plan also reproduced, in another and a slighter form, by Mr. Bateman. The evidence continues to show how prevalent is this idea, though it is as yet far from universal. In the mean time, the Corporation, at its public sittings, displays a bewildered mind, with great dislike to the inquiry, " arrayed or rather dis- arrayed " in a veil of professed willingness. The accumulating force of the evidence seems to imply that Government will be obliged to take up the subject in earnest; and another session ought not to pass without a Parliamentary decision, or perhaps a. bill to give that which is wanted—a Metropolitan Municipality.
