The effects of this last
bequest have been most salutary. It has raised the character of the
education given in the public schools, and the results have been
frequently observed at Cambridge, where men from the northern counties
have taken high honours in all departments of learning.
English benefactors have recently been following in the same direction.
The Owen's College at Manchester; the Brown Library and Museum at
Liverpool; the Whitworth Benefaction, by which thirty scholarships of
the annual value of L100 each have been founded for the promotion of
technical instruction; and the Scientific College at Birmingham, founded
by Sir Josiah Mason, for the purpose of educating the rising generation
in "sound, extensive, and practical scientific knowledge,"--form a
series of excellent institutions which will, we hope, be followed by
many similar benefactions. A man need not moulder with the green grass
over his grave, before his means are applied to noble purposes. He can
make his benefactions while living, and assist at the outset in carrying
out his liberal intentions.
Among the great benefactors of London, the name of Mr. Peabody, the
American banker, cannot be forgotten. It would take a volume to discuss
his merits, though we must dismiss him in a paragraph. He was one of the
first to see, or at all events to make amends for, the houseless
condition of the working classes of London.
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