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The feeling of the nation, amused by the fighting in the Crimea and the sufferings of the wounded, continues to be steadily exhibited at the numberless meetin,r, held in the Metropolis and throughout the country, to collect money in aid of the Patriotic Fund. On Thursday, the mer- chants, bankers, and traders of the City, met at the Mansionhouse, Lord Mayor Sidney in the chair, for the same purpose. The company assem- bled comprehended representatives of all parties, all animated by the same warm sympathies. The speaking was characterized by brevity. Lord John Russell moved the first resolution, expressing "the highest admira- tion and gratitude" forthe services of our Army and Navy in the East. It had been noticed that some persons allege that the relief of the widows and orphans of the fallen should be supplied out of the national funds : Lord John said he would not discuss that question-
" It has been the opinion of Parliament hitherto, that such grants could not be made on ordinary occasions without leading to great abuse of the funds. Be that as it may, however, we know that there are no such funds at present, and that it is to the voluntary zeal and liberality of their coun- trymen that our sailors and soldiers dying_in battle must look for supplying comforts to their widows and orphans."
Mr. Thomas Baring, who seconded the resolution, added, that to him it appeared that it must be much more gratifying to soldiers to know that "those dear to them will, in the case of their own death, be supplied by the individual sympathy and contributions of their fellow countrymen, rather than by formal votes of Parliament, which might be contested at every stage." Mr. Hubbard, Governor of the Bank of England, took the same view, in moving the second resolution ; and Mr. R. C. L. Bevan said that it should be considered a privilege to come forward voluntarily in support of the relatives of those who fall in the war. About 1'6,000/. was subscribed.
A public meeting was held in Willis's Rooms, on Wednesday, to give support to the project of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, who are sending additional clergymen to aid the sick and wounded soldiers of our Army in the East. The Archbishop of Canter- bury presided ; the Bishop of London, Captain Lefroy, Major Powys, the Reverend George Gleig, and Mr. Sergeant Adams, were among the speak- ers. The meeting was successful.
The great military fete at the Crystal Palace in aid of the Patriotic Fund, on Saturday last, was perfectly successful. The weather was propitious ; the audience immense—about 40,000; the scene and enter- tainment novel and striking. There were stationed in different parts of the building thirteen military bands,—belonging to the French Imperial Regiment " Les Guides," the .7irst Life Guards, the Second Life Guards, the Royal Horse Guards, the Sixth Dragoon Guards, the Grenadier Guards, the Coldstream Guards, the Scots Fusilier Guards, the Eighteenth Regiment, the Ninety-fourth Regiment, the Royal Artillery, the Royal Sappers and Miners, and the Royal Marines. In the early part of the day these bands kept up continuous streams of music; the Guides from one gallery commencing with "God save the Queen," and the First Life Guards from an opposite gallery responding with "Partant pour la Syria." From this time until the afternoon, when the bands moved to the terrace, the whole military force played in succession. An enthusiastic reporter writes— "The effect of this arrangement was most singular. Some national air or other, ' The British Grenadiers,' Auld lang sync,' and what not, was con- stantly breaking forth from some new part of the building, as if a musical hint given by the central transept was suddenly taken up by the Gothic screen, and then acted upon by one of the galleries. As the oaks of Dodona were endowed with voices, so it seemed as if every nook of the Crystal Palace was impregnated with music, impatient to break out on every occasion." " One curious effect of the performance on the terrace is well worth no- tice. So sensible was the vibration of the glass, that every note played by the band was distinctly reverberated, and it seemed as if the band without was accompanied with miraculous precision by a band within." One of the conspicuous objects in the-Palace was a military trophy, built of arms and cannon from the Tower, inekding two brass guns cape timed at Boraarsund, and surmounted by the Ens of France, England, rued Turkey.
At EL Martin's Hallssaltonday evening, the_ Reverend F. D. Maurice delivered tonsinnieroue _nudism; in shish every class of society was represented, an inaugural lecture on the-opening of the Working Men's College in Red Lion Square.
The lecture consisted, first, in a review of the difficulties of the working man in his endeavour to get at knowledge, restricted as be is in the time that he can devote to study. The second part of the lecture consisted of an explanation of the method to be attempted by the gentlemen instituting the new College, for adapting the collegiate system to the peculiar eircumetaoces of the working class. Mr. Maurice glanced at some of the various sugges- tions for bringing about education to the working man, and at the proposal that the Universities should be thrrn open to students of the working classes. Such a measure, he observed, might have merit in itself, but the only result would be to transfer some few men from the working clam to the professional class, leaving the body of the -working men exactly where they were Lectures have been opened to the working classes, but the working men make little use of them, because they are desultory, and are unconnected with their own pursuits. The idea of the College originated with the experiments that Mr. Maurice and his friends are carrying on in work-shops established on associative principles, and with the want of education declared by working men themselves. Those experiments, the experiences of the middle ages, and even of the learned universities, had suggested the collegiate plan as the best; and the working men of Sheffield had already indicated both the name and the idea, in their own establishment of the People's College. The desire is, that the working menehmildise made to feel not only that they require certain kinds of knowledge, hut that they are a fraternity of scholars, under the influence of the spirit of scholarship as -ranch when they are working in the shop as when they are attending the College. In order to give that continuity without which them can be no accretion of knowledge, the lectures will be arranged -as much as possible to make each one an introduction for the next; and it is intended to make the applied sciences bear upon the business of the working men, or ,upon sub- jects-with which they are already familiar. Mr. Maurice explained how in this mode arithmetic, geography, grammar, mechanics, &c., will be made to illustrate the laws by which many artisans must work. A lecture on poli- tical terms will introduce the student to a better idea of elementary prin- ciples in politics. The reign of King John, as illustrated by Shakspere, will serve to impress the moral truth of history, illustrated by the poet, with the historical corrections of-the historian. Each lecture will be a lesson upon the subject; and the student will be invited to join in an inteinhange of questions with the professor, thus clearing up difficulties and drandimon the pupils.
Mr. Maurice delivered himself with a manner of extreme plainness and all his peculiar earnestness. He did not palter with his convictions, and yet he satisfied his hearers that there would be no attempt to entrap their assent into particular doctrines. He mentioned that the lectures on the Bible, on Sunday evening, would be delivered gratuitously ; but to attend them is not made a condition of admission into the College. Ile was greatly cheered, particularly when he made distinct appeals to. the com- mon humanity of his hearers, or exemplified his candour and his ge- nerosity.
The libel case of Tidman rersua Ainalie, before Mr.,Whaieley.aaarbitrator, has occupied three days this week, and still remains adjourned.
At the Middlesex Sessions, on Monday, two more ticket-of-leave men ap- peared. Thomas Carter pleaded guilty to stealing some lead pipe, and John Robinson to robbing a lady of her watch. In each case the sentence was six years penal servitude.
Three boys, two eight years of age and one thirteen, who bad been eon- victed of larceny at the last Sessions, were brought up for judgment. The Assistant-Judge further postponed sentence on the two Youngest. With.re- spect to the other, Henry Lewer, he said inquiries laid been made, from which it appeared the father of the boy was in employment, for which he received 358. a week, in addition to which his wife earned 108. a week. The wife received only half-a-crown a week.ont of the husband's wages, and the boy had been left to himself to shift as he could. This was a ease to which an act.of Parliament passed last session particularly applied ; the principle for which there had been a struggle for years, that the parents of such juvenile criminals should be compelled to support them while in pri- son, having been at length recognized, and embodied in the 38th-seetien of the Act to provide Industrial Schools for the County of Middlesex. This boy was just the right age to be sent to Red:hill; and though the sentence might appear severe, it was a really merciful one, as it was passed to enable them to send him to the reformatory institution at Redhill. The sentence was, that he be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for two years.
George Stanley, a middle-aged man, who had charge of one of Alderman Carter's shops, is in custody for embezzlement. When the Alderman dis- covered that the prisoner had not accounted for the money paid fora watch, he sent for a policeman ; Stanley ran up-stairs, locked himself in a bed- room, and ineffectually cut his throat with a razor ; he was -quickly taken to the hospital, and his life was saved.
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