A LECTURE,

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In the Autumn of 1851, I had the honor of giving a Lecture, in this Institution, on “ The Means which are necessary to be adopted to render Mechanics' Institutions more conducive than at present to purposes of Education.”

In the course of that Lecture I endeavoured to show

1st. That such Institutions, with one or two exceptions, did not conduce, as they might, and as their enlightened authors intended, to the promotion of Education.

2ndly. That the failure of those Institutions to accomplish their proposed ends, may be attributed mainly to one of two causes ; viz., In some cases, to injudicious attempts to make them Class Institutions under Class Management; and in very many more, to the sottish habits of a large proportion of the working classes, who ignorantly prefer wasting their time and money in the miserable beer-house and dissipated music saloon, to employing their leisure in those useful and scientific pursuits, which would elevate them in the scale of social life, and promote their intellectual, moral, and religious improvement.

The remedy I proposed for this latter cause of failure, and to counteract its general evil effects upon the victims themselves and society at large, was the diffusion of a knowledge of physiological and sanitary principlesa suggestion which, through the aid of my good friend, Thomas Turner, Esq., F.R.C.S., has given rise to a well-organized anıl useful association for the purpose.*

3rdly. I endeavoured to shew that the supporters and conductors of Mechanics’ Institutions were specially called upon to consider what must be the result of the state of things I had described, in respect to the Institutions themselves; and the more so, because the progress of Legislation, in facilitating the formation of Libraries and Museums at the public cost and under public management, and the establishment of Schools of Design partly supported by the State, very seriously threatened the stability of the Institutions, unless immediate exertion were made to render them useful in those Departments of Education, which the more intelligent portions of the working classes evidently require. And 4thly.

That in order " to render Mechanics' Institutions more conducive than at present to purposes of Education” the following “ Means should be employed."

1. All attempts at promoting Primary Education in such Institutions, by means of Day Schools for Boys and Girls, should be abandoned, as wholly unworthy what ought to be the object of such Institutions.

2. It should be the aim of the Managers of Mechanics' Institutions to limit their attention to the SECONDARY Education of the younger workmen, and to the general Information of all their other members; and accordingly to convert their Institutions into Schools of Practical Science and Institutions for General Literature.

3. The Two Departments thus marked out should be provided for, by special management, and for different classes of members ; and the one Department should assume a Collegiate character, the other that of a Literatery and Scientific Association.

“ The Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association, for Diffusing a Knowledge of the Laws of liealth among the inhabitants of Manchester, Salford, and the Neighbourhood."

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4. The Collegiate Department, I suggested, should arrange an exact course of study for its youthful members, and be supported partly at the expense of the public purse; partly by the fees of the students; and partly by Exhibitions provided through the liberality of private Individuals. The more general Department, to be supported by the contributions of its members, aided by voluntary liberality; and while amply providing for the intellectual, practical, and scientific advantage of its associates, should not overlook their innocent and rational recreation.

5thly and lastly. I urged that great and combined exertions ought to be made by the friends of Education of all parties to secure, at the public cost, improved and extended facilities for promoting primary Education; because in the absence of such efforts, no attempts could be sucessful at promoting Secondary Education.

Two years have elapsed since I propounded those views within this Theatre; and I can only say now, that everything that has occurred, in the interval, relating to public Education, has tended to convince me that the views I then expressed are correct and practicable; and that they strongly commend themselves for immediate and extensive adoption.

Would, indeed, that I could congratulate this important District on manifesting in Educational matters that energy and practical wisdom, for which, in commercial enterprise it is so deservedly celebrated, and that it were not necessary still to deplore that Manchester, which could teach the English nation-nay, could teach the whole worldone of the noblest of political doctrines for advancing the interest and catering to the need of an enterprising people, cannot, even in her own community, agree to adopt any efficient, practicable scheme for promoting the primary Education of her rising little ones.

But be this as it may, I cannot see the noble efforts, which are being made by the Committee and Friends of the Manchester Mechanics' Institution to erect a Building worthy of this city,* without expressing my cordial approbation of the course they are pursuing; and in evidence of my earnest wish for their success, to point out to them, with much diffidence and respect, the objects, which the “signs of the times” appear to me to recommend that, in their new Building, they should keep prominently in view.

I propose, therefore, at the present time, to treat generally of the subject of SecondaRY EDUCATION; leaving, of course, to the managers of this Institution the necessary questions of its direct application, in their own particular case; and I intend to do this in harmony with my former Lecture, by endeavouring to determine “ The position which Mechanics’ Institutions ought to occupy among agencies for promoting National Education, and the encouragements to attempt to place them in such position.”

In discussing this subject, it is necessary to take a comprehensive view of the Educational wants of all the Productive Classes, whether as masters or workmen, and to consider, in relation to the provisions of Foreign States, what are the facilities for supplying those wants, which this country has provided.

In entering upon this consideration, however, I am not insensible that a very serious question necessarily arises ; viz.-what, as the fundamental principle and ultimate aim of any general system of Education, intended to benefit the nation, ought to be kept steadily and perseveringly in view. Here, of course, we may expect a difference of opinion to arise, but according to my own views I should reply, “ The greater social and individual

A new Building for the Institution is now considered necessary.