LITMIR.BIZ

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a letter home in a separate despatch would have seemed to me worse than absurd, because it would really have been giving to this unseemly menace a degree of importance which it did not deserve. If I had sent it I must have accompanied it with a statement to the effect, that my sentiments on the point communicated in my former letter remained unchanged; so the matter would have rested pretty much where it did before. Bentinck seems to suppose that, in keeping back a letter which stated that Canada would separate if the Navigation Laws were not repealed, I intended by some very ingenious dodge to hasten their repeal![11]

      [Sidenote: Speech on education.]

      At the beginning of the winter season of 1848–9, Lord Elgin was present, as patron, at a meeting of the Montreal Mercantile Library Association, to open the winter's course of lectures. It was an association mainly founded by leading merchants, 'with a view of affording to the junior members of the mercantile body opportunities of self-improvement, and inducements sufficiently powerful to enable them to resist those temptations to idleness and dissipation which unhappily abound in all large communities.' He took the opportunity of delivering his views on the subject of education in a speech, parts of which may still be read with interest, after all that has been spoken and written on this fertile topic. It has at least the merit of being eminently characteristic of the speaker, whose whole life was an illustration, in the eyes of those who knew him best, of the truths which he sought to inculcate on the young merchants of Montreal.[12]

      After remarking that it was vain for him to attempt, in a cursory address, to fan the fervour of his hearers' zeal, or throw light on subjects which they were in the habit of hearing so effectively treated,

      Indeed (he continued) I should almost be tempted to affirm that in an age when education is so generally diffused—when the art of printing has brought the sources of information so near to the lips of all who thirst for understanding—when so many of the secrets of nature have been revealed—when the impalpable and all-pervading electricity, and the infinite elasticity of steam, have been made subservient to purposes of human utility—the advantages of knowledge, in an utilitarian point of view, the utter hopelessness of a successful attempt on the part either of individuals or classes to maintain their position in society if they neglect the means of self-improvement, are truths too obvious to call for elucidation. I must say that it seems to me that there is less risk, therefore, of our declining to avail ourselves of our opportunities than there is of our misusing or abusing them; that there is less likelihood of our refusing to grasp the treasures spread out before us, than of our laying upon them rash and irreverent hands, and neglecting to cultivate those habits of patient investigation, humility, and moral self-control, without which we have no sufficient security that even the possession of knowledge itself will be a blessing to us. I was much struck by a passage I met with the other day in reading the life of one of the greatest men of his age and country—Watt—which seemed to me to illustrate very forcibly the nature of the danger to which I am now referring as well as its remedy. It is stated in the passage to which I allude, that Watt took great delight in reading over the specifications of inventions for which patent rights were obtained. He observed that of those inventions a large proportion turned out to be entirely worthless, and a source of ruin and disappointment to their authors. And it is further stated that he discovered that, among these abortive inventions, many were but the embodiment of ideas which had suggested themselves to his own mind—which, probably, when they first presented themselves, he had welcomed as great discoveries, likely to contribute to his own fame and to the advantage of mankind, but which, after having subjected them to that rigid and unsparing criticism which he felt it his bounden duty to apply to the offspring of his own brain, he had found to be worthless, and rejected. Now, unquestionably, the powerful intellect of Watt went for much in this matter: unquestionably his keen and practised glance enabled him to detect flaws and errors in many cases where an eye equally honest, but less acute, would have failed to discover them; but can we doubt that a moral element was largely involved in the composition of that quality of mind which enabled Watt to shun the sunken rocks on which so many around him were making shipwreck—that it was his unselfish devotion to truth, his humility, and the practice of self-control, which enabled him to rebuke the suggestions of vanity and self-interest, and, with the sternness of an impartial judge, to condemn to silence and oblivion even the offspring of his own mind, for which he doubtless felt a parent's fondness, when it fell short of that standard of perfection which he had reared? From this incident in the life of that great man, we may draw, I think, a most useful lesson, which we may apply with good effect to fields of inquiry far transcending those to which the anecdote has immediate reference. Take, for instance, the wide region occupied with moral and political, or, as they are styled, social questions: observe the wretched half- truths, the perilous fallacies, which quacks, greedy of applause or gain, and speculating on the credulity of mankind, more especially in times of perturbation or distress, have the audacity to palm upon the world as sublime discoveries calculated to increase, in some vast and untold amount, the sum of human happiness; and mark the misery and desolation which follow, when the hopes excited by these pretenders are dispelled. It is often said in apology for such persons, that they are, after all, sincere; that they are deceived rather than deceivers; that they do not ask others to adopt opinions which they have not heartily accepted themselves; but apply to this reasoning the principle that I have been endeavouring to illustrate from the life of Watt, and we shall find, I think, that the excuse is, in most cases, but a sorry one, if, indeed, it be any excuse at all. God has planted within the mind of man the lights of reason and of conscience, and without it, He has placed those of revelation and experience; and if man wilfully extinguishes those lights, in order that, under cover of the darkness which he has himself made, he may install in the sanctuary of his understanding and heart, where the image of truth alone should dwell, a vain idol, a creature of his own fond imaginings, it will, I fear, but little avail him, more especially in that day when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed, if he shall plead in extenuation of his guilt that he did not invite others to worship the idol until he had fallen prostrate himself before it.

      These, gentlemen, are truths which I think it will be well for us to lay to heart. I address myself more particularly to you who are entering upon the useful and honourable career of the British merchant; for you are now standing on the lower steps of a ladder, which, when it is mounted with diligence and circumspection, leads always to respectability, not unfrequently to high honour and distinction. Bear in mind, then, that the quality which ought chiefly to distinguish those who aspire to exercise a controlling and directing influence in any department of human action, from those who have only a subordinate part to play, is the knowledge of principles and general laws. A few examples will make the truth of this proposition apparent to you. Take, for instance, the case of the builder. The mason and carpenter must know how to hew the stone and square the timber, and follow out faithfully the working plan placed in their hands. But the architect must know much more than this; he must be acquainted with the principles of proportion and form; he must know the laws which regulate the distribution of heat, light, and air, in order that he may give to each part of a complicated structure its due share of these advantages, and combine the multifarious details into a consistent whole. Take again the case of the seaman. It is enough for the steersman that he watch certain symptoms in the sky and on the waves; that he note the shifting of the wind and compass, and attend to certain precise rules which have been given him for his guidance. But the master of the ship, if he be fit for his situation—and I am sorry to say that many undertake the duties of that responsible office who are not fit for it—must be thoroughly acquainted, not only with the map of the earth and heavens, but he must know also all that science has revealed of some of the most subtle of the operations of nature; he must understand, as far as man can yet discover them, what are the laws which regulate the movements of the currents, the direction of the tempest, and the meanderings of the magnetic fluid. Or, to take a case with which you are more familiar—that of the merchant. The merchant's clerk must understand book-keeping and double-entry, and know how to arrange every item of the account under its proper head, and how to balance the whole correctly. But the head of the establishment must be acquainted, in addition to this, with the laws which regulate the exchanges, with the principles that affect the production and distribution of national wealth, and therefore with those social and political causes which are ever and anon at work to disturb calculations, which would have been accurate enough for quiet times, but which are insufficient

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