386 



SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY NOTES. 



mild dose of tlieatrical representation, which those were willing to attend Arho 

 ■would not think of going to see the enactment of stage plays, with the im- 

 proving adjuncts of scenery and costume. The dramatic form was singularly 

 consistent with our nature, and the only objection was to those plays which had 

 an immoral tendency, or which were vicious and stupid, or often both. The 

 great influence of amusements upon the character of the people, and the dearth 

 of proper amusements, claimed for this question the best consideration of the 

 congress. 



The Rev. H. Solly found a strong desire amongst the working classes for 

 elocutionary entertainments, and considered that the indulgence of that desire 

 was beneficial in keeping men from public-houses, and from the pernicious 

 influences of twopenny and fourpenny theatres. The penny concerts introduced 

 in some large towns were also deserving of encouragement ; but he regretted 

 the increased number of those houses where music was made only the induce- 

 ment to drink. 



Mr. W. Pare, of Dublin, thought the friends of teetotalism had lost a fine 

 opportunity of extending their principles by their adherence to a negative 

 policy. Instead of proposing something positive. The working man must hare 

 some amusement, and drunkenness was often resorted to from no inherent vice, 

 but from want of something better to do. 



Mr. A. Ryland referred to the success which had attended the establishment 

 of penny lectures and penny classes in connection with working men's institu- 

 tions in Birmingham, to which all classes went. The experiment of parks had 

 been tried there for the amusement of the people, and with signal success, and 

 they were going to try the experiment of workmen's halls, which he understood 

 to mean gin palaces without the gin. 



Mr. Cassel remarked that the Temperance Society had not been neglectful in 

 providing amusements for its followers. In Glasgow they had established 

 Saturday night concerts, which were regularly attended by upwards of three 

 thousand people, principally of the working classes, and it was necessary that 

 these temperance amusements should be extended to counteract the influence of 

 music halls, which were becoming a great and gigantic evil. 



The Rev. Dr. Beale bore testimony to the success that had attended the plans 

 adopted for the proper amusement of the people in the agricultural districts, 

 and recommended as the result of his experience that lectures to the labouring 

 classes should combine as far as possible amusement with instruction. 



Lord Brougham said nothing could be more important than the subject under 

 discussion, afiFecting as it did both the health of the body and the health of the 

 mind : and he was glad to hear that the appreciation of its importance was not 

 confined to the towns. 



University Degrees for Women.— Wiss Frances P. Cobbe, on Tuesday, read a 

 paper on "Female Education, and how it would be affected by University 

 Examinations." After alluding to the special wants of women at this time, and 

 the advantages which an improved education would give them. Miss Cobbe 

 controverted the popular idea that a cultivated woman was likely to be a less 

 good wife and mother than an ignorant one, or that, as Sydney Smith said, "a 



