from the multitude, because some have occasionally abused the blessed privilege! Why, the very same argument would consign every man and woman to a cloister, because the world and active life are full of traps and pitfalls. No! Pre-eminent and supreme as I am convinced religion is, yet to make her so in the convictions and hearts of men, I feel she must discard all timidity, must front every truth in the full blaze of light, and sympathize with every pursuit and every impulse of our race.

I have thus briefly shadowed forth the reasons why no person ought to frown upon Mechanics' Institutions. I do not wish to attribute to them any exaggerated or imaginary value; I do not hold them forth as singly containing the elements with which we should hope to regenerate modern society; but it is because I believe them calculated happily to chime in with the existing wants and prevailing dispositions of the times, to afford opportunities for improvement and developement in quarters where they would not otherwise be found, to promote innocent recreation and blameless amusements, and generally to assist the progress of mankind, that I thus venture to recommend them to your cordial sympathy and your active assistance.

ON THE BENEFITS CONFERRED BY

EDUCATION.

A SPEECH DELIVERED BY THE LATE EARL OF CARLISLE, AT THE DISTRIBUTION OF PRIZES AT HUDDERSFIELD

COLLEGE, DECEMBER, 1863.

WELL, then, my young friends, if you will allow me to turn myself to you,-when the motives for diligent application are so varied and important, when the returns to it are so sure and so promising,-for though

we hear very often of bad bargains and ruinous speculations, yet I feel sure, however long your life may be, you will hardly, in the course of it, ever meet with a man who will tell you that he regrets the time which he has spent in the acquisition of knowledge, or repents of having become a scholar,-resolve now, if you never did so before, not to lose those precious hours, the weight of which may be prized in gold, while they have the speed and lightness of feathers; and most of all I wish you to prize beyond all other acquisitions-beyond the acquisition of learning, however solid, or the mastery of accomplishments, however brilliant; prize before them all, the formation of individual character, the building up of moral habits, the whole pervading discipline of duty. Join docility and teachableness in your studies to that independence and resolution of will, which will enable you to apply and to appropriate to yourselves the teachings of others' wisdom, and the lessons of your own experience; so that when the time shall come for your leaving the friendly shelter of this institution, and for launching out your small barks into the wide and stormy sea of life, you may not only carry with you those honourable certificates of approval of your past exertions and conduct, which I have had the satisfaction of delivering to two of your number this day, but you may go forth into the busy arena of the world, and there, whatever may be your special calling,-in literature and art, in science or in business, amidst public avocations or among family connections,-you may at last, one and all of you, be fitted and prepared to play the part of useful Christian citizens.

I would now only gently remind even those who have so honourably come forward in support of this institution, that while they desire to promote the cause of a creditable and liberal education amongst those members of society for whom it is calculated, they must not forget, that in these times it is most indispensable to the welfare and even to the salvation of the country at large, that the benefits of education should not be confined to any particular class of persons; but that they

should be extended to every species of occupation, and to every department of society. Given already to the nobles, to the merchants, to the master manufacturers, they ought not to be withheld from the mechanic, the labourer, and the cottager. You have made ample and splendid provision in order to meet the exigencies of those that are, comparatively speaking, in easier circumstances, and in so doing you have done most wisely, and most well. May those classes enjoy and appropriate the advantages thus held out to them; may we hear of your sons giving themselves up with ardour to all the studies of this place; may they delight in the sublime lay of Homer, and the faultless lines of Virgil; may they obtain a proficiency in every polite and graceful accomplishment, or wing their adventurous flight through the highest realms of science! But while they do all this, be it our care also to provide that, if you will, a plainer, but still a sound and substantial nourishment shall be afforded to the bulk of the nation, to those who make the pith and marrow of our people. See that it is put within their reach; see that it offers itself to their notice; see that it wooes their acceptance; even let it be pressed upon them, though they should at first sight seem unwilling to take advantage of it. While you support Academies and Colleges, give your assistance and your countenance also to working mens' classes, and to Mechanics' Institutes. While you amply uphold the credit of Huddersfield College, promote also the prosperity of the day-school and the Sunday-school. Let education be provided for the heirs of poverty and the children of toil, as a genial relaxation from the weary hours of labour; let it be provided for them as a solid and sustaining nurture for the intellectual, the moral, and the spiritual cravings of their nature. let me give this parting exhortation to you,—that within the whole range of your several spheres, according to the best of your abilities, you should promote the united cause of a free conscience and an universal education.

And

WATER.

IN treating of a substance so common as water, it may be expected, that we shall not have to use many uncommon words. Wherever this is necessary, we shall endeavour to explain them, as they occur, in such a way as to remove any difficulty which they might occasion.

Water is not a simple substance: it is composed of two gases or airs-oxygen and hydrogen-united in the proportion of eight to one in weight so that nine pounds of water contains eight pounds of oxygen and one pound of hydrogen, chemically combined. All matter, with which we are acquainted, is capable of existing in three forms-solid, fluid, or aëriform; and water is found under each of these forms. It is either solid, as in ice, hail, or snow; or liquid, as it is generally found in temperate or warm climates; or gaseous-that is, in the form of an invisible vapour, as in steam. Without entering into the question as to the cause of this change in the form of bodies, we may consider, that the very small particles, of which bodies are composed, are capable of being acted upon by two opposite forces. By one of these, which is called the attraction of cohesion, the particles of a body are drawn together; by the other, which is called the repulsion, they have a tendency to separate from one another. If the attractive force is the stronger, the body requires force to separate its parts,-or it is a solid; if the attractive and repulsive forces are exactly equal, the parts of the body can be separated by the least force, or the body is a fluid; if the repulsive force is the stronger, the particles require some force to keep them near one another, the body resists compression,-or it is an air or vapour. Heat has the property of increasing the repulsive or expansive powers of the particles of bodies; and a very simple experiment will shew the manner in which water will assume the form of a solid, a fluid, or a vapour, by the influence of heat.

Suppose A, B, C, D is a closed glass vessel, containing

S. VI,

at the bottom a small quantity of pounded ice or frozen snow, S, and that a thermometer, T, has its bulb immersed in the ice, which will, of course, mark a temperature at least as low as 32° of Fahrenheit. Suppose, also, that the cubical contents of the vessel are full 1,700 or 1,800 times as great as those of the part occupied by the ice, S. Now, let heat be applied at the bottom, as, for instance, by a lamp, or by setting the vessel on a heated plate, and observe what takes place.

If the temperature of the ice is below the freezing point, or 32°, the mercury in the thermometer first rises to that point, and then the ice begins to melt. During the time of melting, the temperature, as indicated by the thermometer, does not rise at all. The mercury still stands at the freezing point till every particle of the ice is melted. The mercury in the thermometer then begins to rise until it reaches 212, the boiling point of water. Before that time, bubbles will be observed rising in the water; and as soon as the water boils and begins to be converted into steam, the temperature, as indicated by the thermometer, again ceases to increase; the mercury is stationary at the boiling point, until the whole of the water has disappeared. Thus the addition of heat to the solid body, ice, has

changed it into a fluid, and the addition of more heat has changed the fluid into a vapour; so that we may say, without much impropriety, that heat and ice together produce water, and water and heat produce steam.

If the vessel be suspended during the experiment, and balanced by a weight, it will be found to have neither gained nor lost any weight,-which shews that the very same matter, which was first in the form of ice, and then of water, is still contained in the vessel, only it is converted into steam. The

Fig. 1.'