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768 The Saturday Analyst and Leader. / [...
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MECHANICS' INSTITUTES. OLAPHAM LECTURES....
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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London By Moonlight.* Men Of One Idea Ar...
poor unfortunate girls " ' who are found thronging the streets of London by . night ; and also in distributing suitable tracts to the male sex , ' their ' copartners in sin . " He 'seems to have commenced . ' v . his . errand of mercy in a spirit of perfect simplicity .- After a time he founded " The London Female Dormitory and Industrial Institution , " 9 , Abbey-road , St John ' s-wood : and " the Female Temporary Home , " 218 . jVIaryleborie-road . The temporary home is not exclusively for fallen females , but affords shelter and support to young womenwho may be for a short time-without employment . . Many of the young women met with ay Lieutenant Blackmore on his midnight cruises are assisted in vjarious ways , without being admitted into either of the homes . At length , in 1859 , his exertions obtained an especial notice in the Times , and " the Moonlight Mission" has since become an institution . The book before us details the earliest steps taken by the lieutenant . His first connexion was with the Ragged Schools : when he was led to consider whether , so much having been done for the ragged boys of the metropolis , something might not be done for the lost young women . At first he worked with a committee of gentlemen , but these , with other occupations on their hands , could not keep pace with the Man of One Idea . He , therefore , requested to be intrusted with the entire responsibility of the work , and the Committee " resigned to Lieutenant Blackmore the future direction of the Institution , together with all property and effects belonging thereto . " He took this step with the conviction that ' " it is not bands of men , nor confederate nations , nor proud alliances , that have done great things for the world ; it is solitary individuals ^ wielding simply but in earnest the force of their own individual minds , bringing to bear-upon every one " around them the power of that special gift with which God has endowed them " Doubtless the Lieutenant has received his one gift with his one idta . He compares himself with Luther , Calvin , Knox . Like them , certainly , he goes direct to his purpose . He does not meddle with statistical data ; he does not inquire whether , as fast as he reduces-the competition in the market of vice , tie '' ranks are not immediately filled up with new recruits ,. but proceeds to rescue the sheep that have already wandered . The diligent and industrious may complain that the recovered dormitorians are placed in situations Which they have not earned , and which they who have , earned them aspire after in vain ; he loses all such considerations in the joy he feels over the repentant sister . That " the Social Evil" can be conquered by such means is , indeed , a vain supposition ; but many individuals may indubitably be benefited . The root of the evil must be attacked at the deepest earthings—in the artificial state of the marriage law , and- of social manners . So long as young" men of £ 300 a-year prefer club-life , and think that on such resources they are not entitled to , and cannot , honourably , take a wife , there must always be a surplus female population jwithout honest means of subsistence . So long as such young men , of respectable family , gay , well-dressed , and seeking pleasure exclusively , set the fatal example , the aspiring artisan or shopman will likewise adopt the same Malthusian principle , and seek his own good at the expense of poor womankind . The responsibilities of sexual union will be evaded by the more reflective on principle , as well as disregarded without any by the thoughtless and merely sensual . The motives for sin increase in number and complexity , and gain even respectability from association with certain other questions of public"importanco , and on which political economists . have written learned and ponderous treatises . We must go to the source of the evils complained , of , and find the remedy endeavoured after in improved institutions and a better and more practical code of morals , as well as better examples set by those who lead in the structure of social manners .
768 The Saturday Analyst And Leader. / [...
768 The Saturday Analyst and Leader . / [ Sept . 1 , 1860
Mechanics' Institutes. Olapham Lectures....
MECHANICS' INSTITUTES . OLAPHAM LECTURES . * THE subject of Mechanics' Institutes has not yet lost its interest . They have , not , it is granted , yielded all the results that were expected ; but their principle is still as sound as evor . They have , at any rate , survived the prejudices that opposed thorn at the outset , and made considerable progress . They would have made more , had not some prejudice and more ignorance yet existed , which time has yet to conquer or remove . Reactions havo been attempted , in sevoi'al places have partially succeeded . Mr . H . Whitehead , in Ms admirable Lectures , tells us as much . He mentions a gentleman who assured , him that he was formerly a great supporter of education , and that he had seen reason to change his mind , hoing convinced that we have now too tnuqh of it . A friend answered the objector , reminding him that his servants came from such schools aa he had just maligned . " It is there , " said the monitor , " that bhoy are taught to read and write . " Servants , sir ! " implied the other with masterly prosenco of mind , " my oxperionco of servants is that the most ignorant are the boat . " Out on such half-faced fellowship ! But , doubtless , there are many who would place limits on popular education for obvious reasons . Bat those reasons we know to bo bad , and such limitations to bo injurious to the ciuiao , and perhaps dangorous to tho class that would impose then } . All , however , have . not taken up with such narrow notions . There ore still numbers who ' ussent to tho maxim of King aUfrod , that every Briton ought to know how to read nncl write . " Mr . Whitohoad 'oilers many oxcollont suggestions for tho promotion of progress in educational'institutes . Oneia the establishment oi ' Lending Libraries . An Act of Parliament , indeed , has , to / ana awnufla aua
' been passed in their favour , enabling rate-payers in any parish to : levv . avearlvrateof not more than a penny " in . t Ac pound , tor the ! establishment and carrying on of a Free Liorary and Heading ! Room , provided the consent of two-thirds of the rate-payers present ' at the meeting can be obtained . Mr . Whitehead thinks it strange that in manv of the large London parishes—m the city ot -London , in Islington / in St . George ' s , Hanover-square , in Marylebone , m St . Pancras , in Paddington , in Clerkenwell , and more recentl y in Camberwell , public meetings for this purpose have proved complete failures . St . Margaret's and St . John ' s , Westminster are favourable exceptions to this rule . They have founded a , small library , which has met with gratifying success . " Westminster , " us our lecturer wittily remarks , " is , in this respect , to the other London parishes , what Piedmont is to the despotisms of Europe . " . . One necessary principle in the conduct of lending libraries is that the readers should be supplied with the books that they would hke to read —( works of fiction , for instance ) , and not with books that refuse to circulate . The readers , themselves , will come > at last to more serious books : — fictitious works induce the habit . Mr . \ Y mtehead found this the way in Clapham . " We are not as yet , says he , " strong in science . The time is . at hand , however , when we shall be . We have abstained from professing , to teach , and in our selection of books for the library have been content experimentally to feel our way . Already our readers are beginning to educate us to the appreciation of science ; " ' . This experimental way of conducting Mechanics Institutes is much to be commended ;—the arbitrary oiie lias failed entirely . The working-man is best aware of his own wants . He has first to live , then to legislate ;—food first for his support , and next for the gratification of a more refined taste . This is natural progress , and none other can be availably substituted for it . . . The Rev . Mr . H . Whitehead has a keen perception of the spirit of the times , and its influence on the operative mind . The active are readily spurred on by the thinking , and soon outrun them , riishing into action'before the process of thinking is complete . . J \ ir Driver , too , complains of this tendency , in the matter or" strikes and " Documents , " where both masters and men act without sumcient reflection , and counter to the laws which are purposed tor . their welfare . Mr . Driver considers that a good deal yet remains to be done . before the Working Classes can fully reahze the rights and responsibilities of their proper position . They are , he adds , , by no means satisfied , either with themselves or with then- relative . position to other classes . One cannot help seeing , ho remarks that , from one end of the country to another , there is a sort ot upheaving , a reaching out after something , which those who are most deeply the subjects of it are perhaps the least competent to understand and interpret ; The working class has advanced to a more elevated position . But so , likewise , has every other , though perhaps in a different way . " The upper classes of the present time , compared with what they were fifty years ago , have progressed as much intellectually and morally as the working classes have within the same time physically and socially . One has been cultivating and improving its position ; the other has been occupied in striving for a position which it has at length won . ' ^ The abuses of system are well exposed by the Rev . 1 . C . Whitehead . The world keeps travelling on , and institutions , to be sale , must travel with it . What has done once will not always do again . " At some time or other you have had a delightful meeting with some friends . By universal consent it was a day ot great enjoyment . In an evil hour you and your friends have- agreed to repeat the day and its pleasures . You assembled the same friends . You provided the same means of entertainment . You went to the same spot . You intended to have the same delight . But the mocking- spirit of enjoyment had fled , determined to convince you that ho was not bound by your arrangements , and tjiat Spirit is not the slave of Form . " The systematic character of the education of modern times is unfavourable to the production 01 great original thinkers . The evils of mere Routine are patent , but are here traced to their source with a master ' s skill . In the little book before us ( for it is a small one ) , there is a greater number of excellent remarks than we find in many a large and elaborate treatise . Lecture-writing , like essay-writing , is ftgreat blessing . The writer , in either case , writes little or much , according to his knowledge : and where he has not full information , contents himself with a guess or a . suggestion . And these rocur at no long intervals , but evermore turn up , two or throe in a short paragraph . In this way , a multitude of things are said , which , » t they had had to beformally discussed , might have perished m silence . There is in Mr . H . Whitohead's lectures much that stands out distinguishable from the rest , and marks him as a man of subtle and philosophical mind . He takes his ground always on principle , and works such principle through , whether it is for or against the workman or his employer , for or against tho Literary Institute or obsolete prejudices , or for or against tho immediate argument which ho would himself support . He would have the truth , and only that , prevail . Such a teacher , speaking with authority , must bo of great advantage to tho struggling- institutes in his parish , whose oniwo ho would promote , and must also conduce greatly to the elevation ol all classes within tho oirclo i > f his influence ,. , % . '> . tSirzsziZ i-i' - ^ u . . i £ Ai * 4 JU" : sv xs 1 ' ' « v k * m ^ b ^ & ^ db * -v * *» a-w <» # B « ff ' \ fc . ¥ * ^& 1 r ^*\ T ~ l T- ^ £ \
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 1, 1860, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01091860/page/8/
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