WILDERSPIN, HIS PENSION AND TESTIMONIAL.
ALTHOUGH the promoters of the Wilderspin Testimonial are naturally unsatisfied until they succeed in raising their antici- pated amount of 2,0001., it cannot be said that their efforts have even thus far been unavailing. The barrier of 101. subscriptions, which was hitherto the highest rate in their list, has been passed, and they have to acknowledge a contribution of 30/. ; Mr. John Ainsworth, of Moss Bank near Bolton, being the first to set that example of enlarged munificence. The progress has been slow, but now the pace seems to be advancing. Meanwhile, independently of this private subscription, the at- tention drawn to Mr. Wilderspin's just claims has had the useful effect of moving the proper disposition in the highest quarters. herd John Russell, whose new Administration is to be signalized by some decided activity in the task of educating the people, has advised the Queen to bestow a pension of 1001. a year on the founder of Infant Schools. The Royal gift was announced by Lord John in the following agreeable terms. " Chesham Place, July 16, 1846. " Sra—I have received her Majesty's commands to place your name in the list ofp.m.gons to deserving persons charged upon the Queen's Civil List, for a yearly of one hundred pounds.
=this It gives me great pleasure to convey the Queen's gracious wish that you will =this testimony to your services as the founder and promoter of Infant I remain, your obedient servant, J. Kassala,. " — Wilderspin, Esq., Barton."
This timely tribute is likely to have a salutary influence on the private subscription. It is at once a Royal and an official ac- knowledgment of Mr. Wilderspin's claims. In fact, they are of a kind to receive general acknowledgment when once attention is turned to the subject. Wilderspin's right to the public rewards for irregular services fully stands the tests which we recently laid down. The good done by .him is palpable and great: he has shown that tuition may be given in the very early years of child- hood, and shown that it can best, can only be done, by kindness; he has set others upon the same task, until it has become a com- monplace ; and he has personally- been instrumental, by early training, in saving thousands from vice and misery. The inducements to perform that service were scanty, the discourage- meats abundant : the project was at first thought to be impos- sible, and Wilderspin had to encounter the chilling doubts of the world at large, who thought him an idle dreamer—to say nothing. of invidious attacks upon him for the unsectarian com- prehensiveness with which he tendered his offers of assistance. His personal sacrifices have been great : his intelligence, his zeal, his constitutional activity, his good-humoured address, might have been the means of securing his prosperity in many profit- able vocations ; but he devoted himself to the redemption of indi- gent infancy from squalid ignorance; and he is poor. And his Work is done. His claims, therefore, stand all the tests in the highest degree,—the value of the service, the small regular in- ducement to its performance, the personal sacrifices, and the ac- complishment of the work to be rewarded. Few of the " testi- monials " so much in vogue just now can so completely and un- istplivocally stand those tests ; with 'this further consideration- giat although the bounty of the Crown will relieve Wilderspin's Aeaning years from actual want, it would need something more to 'secure him that ease which 'he has so fully earned.
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