THE HISTORY AND MYSTERY OF THE SCARBOROUGH LANCASTERIAN SCHOOLS, FIRST ESTABLISHED IN 1810. INCLUDING CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. MURRAY THE PRESIDENT, THE REV. G. B. KjŊN, one of three SURVIVING TRUSTEES OF THE SAID SCHOOLS. W. S. THEAKSTONE, SCARBOROUGH; BAINES AND NEWSOME, LEEDS; H. BELLERBY, YORK; W. STEPHENSON, HULL; C. KNIGHT AND CO., LONDON. 1840. F. "There are some which sayLet us do evil that good may come, whose condemnation is just."-ST. PAUL. Honesty, is the best policy."-OLD PROVERB. "Bigotry and Mysticism have ever been ready to suppress inquiry because by investigation their dominion is overthrown."-CREWDSON. "For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, Jest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest"-JOHN iii. 20, 21. INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS To Thomas Purnell, Esq. (Mayor), S. S. Byron, George Knowles, and John Kelk, M.D., Esquires, the Magistrates of the Borough of Scarborough. GENTLEMEN, IF I did not feel convinced there was a peculiar propriety in addressing this little work to you, rather than to any other person or persons, I should assuredly have declined doing so on the present occasion; for although I am aware that the name of one or more of you may have been designedly placed in the list of the Committee of the Lancasterian Schools here, for the purpose of giving greater influence and countenance to the extraordinary proceedings of a small but active portion of that body, and as I therefore believe without any express sanction or authority on your part (and it may be even without your previous knowledge), yet, conscious as I am of your perfectly unbiased and independent mind and character, and having, besides, already communicated with each of you by my Letters of the 8th of April last, as also with Dr. Murray, the President of the Institution, upon the several important points of difference, with a view of exciting some attention to the merits of the case from the Committee, either by eliciting an attempted refutation of the original statement of facts, recited in my Letter to that Gentleman of the 4th of November, 1839, or at least some exposition of the grounds and reasons of their own Resolution upon it, dated the 7th of January last; however, they having done neither of these, but resting the question between us entirely upon their own assumptions, I have in consequence met with every species of procrastination and evasion, amounting in my mind to an accumulation of insult and provocation, of which they are so capable, in order to discourage and intimidate me from any further prosecution of the cause which I have undertaken, with no other object than, as a duty to the public and myself, to elicit the truth, and thereby to promote the peace and good faith, and general prosperity of the Institution, and of society at large. Under these circumstances, I am satisfied that I cannot appeal to the respectable Inhabitants of this Borough, or the public generally, under better auspices than may be gained by your acceptance of this continued effort to be impartially heard, in order to obtain that justice for myself and others, which has only within these few months past been so openly, peremptorily, nay, even insultingly denied, by a party of "Friends" in the Committee, acting very craftily, but effectively, upon the misinformation and feelings of others, and who, with a plausible appearance of primitive purity of principle and practice, have, nevertheless, in their congregate (not corporate) capacity, put forth what, I submit, will be found to be insidious aspersions, sophistical inconsistencies, and even positive untruths, affecting the character and interests of myself and others, which, in their individual station, I am sure they would be afraid or ashamed to avow or repeat, and which it is the design of this publication to counteract, and expose to that public scrutiny and condemnation which such conduct justly demands. I have the honour to remain, very respectfully, 15th October, 1840. Gentlemen, Your most obedient Servant, HISTORY AND MYSTERY OF THE SCARBOROUGH LANCASTERIAN SCHOOLS. HISTORICAL Notices of Public Institutions are seldom undertaken except by persons who have held certain official stations, or have obtained unrestricted access to the authorities upon which to found the superstructure they propose to erect. Those of a more circumscribed and limited character, which compared with the former, may properly be designated local or district institutions, have seldom any other memorial than their own periodical Reports furnish; and these, if not duly methodised and condensed, are more or less ephemeral and illusory in their general connexion and bearing, and often feeble and fluctuating in their tendency and effect. Some productions of the former kind exhibit splendid specimens of talent, and of exemplary assiduity and research; such as the History of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and that of the London Missionary Society, besides many others, in great variety; but of the latter, they are comparatively few and far between, and the reason probably may be, that they generally partake more of a confined and systematic character, and consist chiefly in the ordinary routine of dry detail, as the same appears in the summary of the Annual Reports of their proceedings. In this History of the Scarborough Lancasterian Schools, great care has been taken not to substitute fancy for facts, or B |