| 829 | Greenwich. | {June 30} | Hospital Schools. | 830 |
universities at one time; encroachments upon the church at another; again, the subversion of the courts of justice; and, finally, the entire annihilation of the structure of national government in the year just past. And it did therefore appear to him, looking at these events, that the dilatory, and he might say insidious course, which had been adopted by Russia in these proceedings, exhibited strong symptoms of a lurking consciousness that her rights in the matter were not quite absolute, and that she was not the only party who had a claim to be heard in the question. He (Mr. Stuart Wortley) should consider it wholly unnecessary to trouble the House with any further observations of his, after what had fallen from his right hon. Friend at the head of the Government. The object for which he rose, was to declare his cordial concurrence in the objects of the present motion; and although the motion itself was not one which would have any immediate practical effect, he should not think it thrown away if it should tend at all to strengthen the hands of the right hon. Baronet in any representations upon the subject which he might find it possible to make, founded upon rights on the part of this county, with respect to which he had declared it to be his wish not to recede from former declarations made within these walls.
Mr. P. Howard said, it was only by an appeal to the magnanimity of the present ruler of Russia that any amelioration of the condition of Poland could be effected at present. He trusted that the Emperor Nicholas would imitate the example of his brother Alexander in the early part of his reign, and act justly and humanely towards Poland, and when that last hour shall come which visits the peasant and the prince, he would look back upon that day as the most blest of his career, when old Sarmatia was restored to her rights.
Mr. Galley Knight briefly replied. He felt great satisfaction at the reception which his motion had met with, and he was sure that the sympathy so generally expressed by the House could not but be most grateful to the Polish nation. It would revive their hopes, and encourage the belief which they still fondly cherished, that the Polish nation was never to be extinct.
Motion agreed to.
Greenwich Hospital Schools.] Mr. Cowper rose, pursuant to notice, to call the attention of the House to the state of the Greenwich Hospital Schools, and to move the following resolution:—
"That in the opinion of this House, the schools attached to the Royal Hospital at Greenwich should be open at all times to the inspection of inspectors appointed by the Committee of Privy Council on Education, and that reports of such inspection should he annually laid upon the Table of this House."
From the schools connected with Greenwich Hospital there issued a considerable number of boys. Last year, the number of boys who quitted the school was 404, of that number 91 entered the royal navy and about 150 went into the merchant service. In tome respects the schools were likely to be productive of considerable advantage to the public, for they afforded great facilities for the preparation of boys. The upper school gave a good scientific education, at least to a certain portion of the boys, and it could easily be made capable of imparting to all who entered it a knowledge of machinery and of those sciences which were applicable to navigation. Now that steam navigation had been brought to so high a degree of excellence, it did appear to him most important that no pains should be spared to increase the number of competent engineers, and with that view he thought it very material that the schools at Greenwich should be placed under the best possible regulation, that they should be conducted upon sound principles, and be calculated to enforce habitual obedience. The House—at least every hon. Member present—might not perhaps be aware that the upper school formed part of the original foundation of the hospital. The two schools, however were distinct in their origin and different in their regulations. The lower school was formed in the year 1799, and it was not transferred to Greenwich till 1805, when the name of the school was changed by letters patent. In the course of fifteen years the grants received by the upper school amounted to 350,000l., to which 40.000l. from the patriotic fund at Lloyd's had been added. In the year 1821 these schools were consolidated by act of Parliament, and placed under the authority of the Board of Admiralty. Now, as they received money under an act of Parliament, and as they were placed under the authority of the Admiralty, he did think the House had a fair right to see those places of education were conducted under
