BISHOP SELWYN UPON COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS.

Press, Volume XIII, Issue 1717, 25 August 1868, Page 3

BISHOP SELWYN UPON COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS.

[From the " Manchester Courier."] _ The Bishop of Lichfield lately distributed the prizes tha-had been gained by students in h £°^ ol ™° Ld been successfu * **j^: hampton centre oi vie T ? middle-das, compet.t.vescbeme c The

memory of the late Lord Hatherton for Staffordshire boys had been won by a scholar at tho Grammar School of that town, while last year it was taken by a boy from Bretrood School, seven miles off, a school from which tbo present Fifth Wrangler at Cambridge came. The report showed that the female students in the centre had been found proficient in political economy, but deficient in geography and arithmetic. Both i& bo P and girls the number of . students sent up had greatly increased in the past year. His lordship said he regarded these examinations as the means of bringing out from the mass of the young people cf the country those who possessed the ability to be of service to the nation. In some such manner Dγ Wood, under whom he had learnt so much at Cambridge, had been drawn out of one of the northern schools. They were a feature of that distinguishing glory of England that any man, however humble his parentage, might by a course of in our public institutions rise to fill the highest positions either in Church or State. [Applause.] It would be needless to mention how many lord chancellors and bishops had been born of humble parentsgfc, yet who had, through the public Educational institutions, attained to tl&se distinguished positions. Upon the Jaet that this was so ho looked ac one of the greatest safeguards of the country. [Applause.] He knew what, • sooner or later, was likely to overtake oligarchical institutions. They knew what followed from the constant intermarrying of aristocratic families. It was just that which was seen in farming operations, when ouly the surface was cultivated. In England the attempt nad always Jbeen to bring up to the surfaceflgad to cultivate that lower stratuflPSf society which, when it became , associated with that above it, produced results of the greatest value to the nation. This great good was brought about by the medium of the public educational institutions of the land. [Applause.] He had seen an analagous state of things in operation in pur goldfields. Although there might be no traces at first visible of the gold which it contained, yet a man would go and take some four or five acres, it might be, of auriferous soil, and engaging with a company who had brought jwater a distance, perhaps of thirty or forty miles, secure a supply of that etement, and laboriously wash out every particle of the precious metal. Even so was jjt with their middle-class examinations., [Applause] Speaking of the locality in which they were then assembled, thefhad there a vast mass of * half million of people in what was termed five rural deaneries, yet possessing an appearance anything ', hut rural. [Laughter.] Out of the auriferous soil they might be able tb gather together, if they could dniy siflj them, particles of. gojd which wpuld, contribute to the enriching of their common country. [Applause.] :' By tTiese means there were to be sought out the young men who were qualified to take their part ; in the great, struggle which was coming on. The* jrinner* of scholarships, when they got to college, had that influence brought to bfca*Upon them which l operated in. J of members of Parliament who might: be great lights—[laughter]—in their own localities, but who, when, they got among the 600 or 700 men who composed the House, found that they were by no means the great people they had j imagined. [Applause.] A scholarship,, an old Cambridge fellow used when he (Bishop Selwyn) was at college, to compute at a high: money price. Whenever there came in a student who had won such a prize he used to address him with, " Now, youDg man, you are presented with £20,000." This prospective wealth the winner of a scholarship had attained at scarcely any money outlay. These examinations and their associated prizes should, therefore, form a great stimulus to study by the youth of the land. They were likewise a great stimulus to masters, and should be so to parents. To each of these claeses the right rev. prelate spoke wise words of counsel and encouragement in respect of the educational duties which devolved' upon . them severally. He concluded by expressing his regret that there was for girls no higher prize corresponding with the scholarships which were available for boys. He was not, however, among the number who were enthusiastic upon "Woman's Rights " [laughter], and he should rather desire to find the young women of that centre proficient in domestic than in political economy. [Applause.] For he felt sure that proficiency in that branch of knowledge would make them better wives and better mothers, and far more a blessing to the world 'than the highest attainments in the science of politics. [Loud applause.] The Bishop was thanked very cordially for distributing the prizes and for his speech.'