This feeling is so universal, that there is no combination of society in any age in which it has not developed itself. It may indeed be partly restrained under despotic governments, under peculiar systems of retarded civilisation, but it is a consequence as incidental to the spirit and the genius of the Christian civilisation of Europe as that the day should follow night, and the stars should shine according to their laws and order. Why the very name of the institution that brings us together illustrates the fact. I can recall, and I think I see more than one gentleman around me who equally can recall, the hours in which we wandered amid

'Fields that cool Ulyssus loves.'

At least, there is my honourable friend, the member for Stockport who, I am sure, has a lively recollection of that classic stream, for I remember one of the most effective allusions he made to it in one of the most admirable speeches I ever listened to. But, notwithstanding that allusion, I would still appeal to the poetry of his constitution, and I know it abounds in that quality; I am sure that he could not have looked without emotion on that immortal scene. I still can remember that olive-crowned plain, that sunset crag, that citadel fame of ineffable beauty! That was a brilliant civilisation developed by a gifted race more than 2,000 years ago: at a time when the ancestors of the manufacturers of Manchester, who now clothe the world, were themselves covered with skins and tattooes like the red men of the wilderness.

But influences more powerful even than the useful lapse of time separate and distinguish you from that race. They were the children of the sun: you live in a distant, rugged, and northern clime; they bowed before different altars, they followed different customs, they were modified by different manVotaries of the Beautiful, they sought in art the means of embodying their passionate conceptions: you have devoted your energies to utility; and by the means of a power almost unknown to antiquity, by its miraculous agencies you have applied its creative force to almost every combination of human circumstances that could produce your objects. Yet, amid the

ners.

Mr. Cobden.

toil and triumphs of your scientific industry, upon you there comes the indefinable, the irresistible yearning for intellectual refinement; you build an edifice consecrated to those beautiful emotions and to those civilising studies in which they excelled, and you impress upon its front a name taken from

Beautiful triumph of immortal genius. Sublime incentive to eternal fame! Then, when the feeling is so universal, when it is one which modern civilisation is maturing and developing, who does not feel that it is not only the most benevolent, but the most politic thing you can do to avail yourself of its influence, and to direct in every way the formation of that character upon which intellect must necessarily now exercise an irresistible influence? We cannot shut our eyes any longer to the immense revolution; knowledge is no longer a lonely eremite affording a chance and captivating hospitality to some wandering pilgrim : knowledge is now found in the market-place, a citizen and leader of citizens. The spirit has touched the multitude: it has impregnated the mass

Totamque infusa per artus

Mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet.

I would yet say one word to those for whom this institution is not entirely but principally formed. I would address myself to that youth on whom the hopes of all societies repose and depend. I doubt not that they feel conscious of the position which they occupy-a position which, under all circumstances, at all periods, in every clime and country, is one replete with duty. The Youth of a nation are the Masters of Posterity; but the youth I address have duties peculiar to the position which they occupy. They are the rising generation of a society unprecedented in the history of the world; that is at once powerful and new. In other parts of the kingdom the remains of an ancient civilisation are prepared ever to guide, to cultivate, to inform, to influence the rising mind. But they are born in a miraculous creation of novel powers, and it is rather a provi

dential instinct that has developed the necessary means of maintaining the order of your new civilisation than the natural foresight of man. This is their inheritance. They will be called upon to perform duties-great duties; I for one wish, for their sakes and for the sake of my country, that they may be performed greatly. I give to them that counsel that I have ever given to youth, and which I believe to be the wisest and the best I tell them to aspire. I believe that the man who does not look up will look down, and that the spirit that does not dare to soar is destined perhaps to grovel. Every individual is entitled to aspire to that position which he believes his faculties qualify him to occupy; I know there are some who look with what I believe is short-sighted timidity and false prudence upon such views. They are apt to tell us, 'Beware of filling the youthful mind with an impetuous tumult of turbulent fancies; teach youth rather to be content with his position; do not induce him to fancy that he is that which he is not, or to aspire to that which he cannot achieve.' In my mind these are superficial delusions. He who enters the world finds his level. It is the solitary being, the isolated individual alone in his solitude, who may be apt to miscalculate his powers and misunderstand his character. But action teaches him the truth even if it be a stern one; association affords him the best criticism in the world, and I will venture to say that if he belongs to the Athenæum, though when he enters it he may think himself a genius, if nature has not given him a passionate and creative soul, before a week has elapsed he will become a very sober-minded individual.

I wish to damp no youthful ardour. I can conceive what such an institution would have afforded to the suggestive mind of a youthful Arkwright. I can conceive what a nursing mother such an institution must have been to the brooding genius of your illustrious and venerated Dalton. It is the asylum of the self-formed; it is the counsellor of those who want counsel, but it is not a guide that will mislead, and it is the last place that will fill the mind of man with false ideas and false conceptions. He reads a newspaper, and his consent oozes out after reading a leading article. He refers to the

library, and the calm wisdom of centuries and sages moderates the rash impulse of juvenescence. He finds new truths in the lecture-room and he goes home with a conviction that he is not so learned as he imagined. In the discussion of a great question with his equals in station perhaps he finds that he has met his superiors in intellect. These are the means by which the mind of man is brought to a healthy state, by which that self-knowledge that has always been lauded by sages may be most securely attained; it is a rule of universal virtue, and from the senate to the counting-house will be found of universal application. Then to the youth of Manchester, representing now the civic youth of this great country and this great district, I now appeal. Let it never be said again that the fortunes of these institutions were in danger. Let them take advantage of this hour of prosperity calmly to examine, and deeply to comprehend, the character of that institution in which these vast interests are involved, and which for them may afford a relaxation which brings no pang, and yields information which may bear them to fortune. It is to them I appeal with confidence, because I feel I am pleading their cause--with confidence, because in them I repose my hopes. When nations fall it is because a degenerate race intervenes between the class that is created and the class that is doomed. Let them then remember what has been done for them; the leaders of their community have not been remiss in regard to their interests. Let them remember that when the inheritance devolves upon them, they are not only to enjoy but to improve. They will one day succeed to the high places of this great community let them recollect those who lighted the way for them; and when they have wealth, when they have authority, when they have power, let it not be said that they were deficient in public virtue and public spirit. When the torch is delivered to them let them also light the path of human progress to educated man.

ROYAL LITERARY FUND, May 8, 1872.

[The King of the Belgians honoured the Literary Fund dinner on this occasion by taking the chair, and his health was proposed by Mr. Disraeli, the only speaker of the evening, so at least report says, who addressed His Majesty as 'Sire.']

MR.

R. DISRAELI, who on rising was received with loud cheers, said, Sire, forty years ago a portion of Europe, and one not the least fair, seemed doomed by an inexorable fate to permanent dependence and periodical devastation. And yet the conditions of that country were favourable to civilisation and human happiness: a fertile soil skilfully cultivated, a land covered with beautiful cities and occupied by a race prone alike to liberty and religion, and always excelling in the fine arts. In the midst of a European convulsion, a great statesman resolved to terminate that deplorable destiny, and conceived the idea of establishing the independence of Belgium on the principle of political neutrality. That idea was welcomed at first with sceptical contempt. But we who live in the after generation can bear witness to the triumphant success of that principle, and can now take the opportunity of congratulating that noble policy which consecrated to perpetual peace the battle-field of Europe.

Such a fortunate result was, no doubt, owing in a great degree to the qualities of the race which inhabited the land. They have shown on more than one occasion, under severe trials, that they have possessed those two qualities which can alone enable a nation to maintain the principle of neutralityalike energy and discretion. But we must not forget that it was their fortunate lot that the first monarch who ascended their throne was the most eminent statesman of the nineteenth century. With consummate prudence, with unerring judg