MANUAL INSTRUCTION. 329 



in other subjects. Though so much has been said about the importance 

 of science and the value of technical instruction, or of hand-training, 

 as I should prefer to call it, it is unfortunately true that in our system 

 of education, from the highest school downward, both of them are 

 sadly neglected, and the study of language reigns supreme. 



This is no new complaint. Ascham, in " The Schoolmaster," long 

 ago lamented it ; and Milton, in his letter to Mr. Samuel Hartlib, com- 

 plained " that our children are forced to stick unreasonably in these 

 grammatick flats and shallows " ; and observes that, " though a lin- 

 guist should pride himself to have all the tongues Babel cleft the world 

 into, yet, if he have not studied the solid things in them as well as the 

 words and lexicons, he were nothing so much to be esteemed a learned 

 man as any yeoman or tradesman competently wise in his mother dia- 

 lect only " ; «and Locke said that " schools fit us for the university 

 rather than for the world." Commission after commission, committee 

 after committee, have reiterated the same complaint. How, then, do 

 we stand now ? 



I see it, indeed, constantly stated that, even if the improvement is 

 not so rapid as could be desired, still we are making considerable prog- 

 ress in this direction. But what are the facts? Are we really making- 

 progress ? 



On the contrary, the present rules made by the Education Depart- 

 ment are crushing out elementary science. There are two heads ele- 

 mentary science may be taken under, which are known as " class sub- 

 jects " or " specific subjects." Under the Code, there are four so-called 

 class subjects, only two of which may be taken. One of them must be 

 English, whicb I am afraid in a great many cases practically means 

 grammar. Consequently, if either history or geography were selected 

 for the second, elementary science must be omitted. It has been 

 pointed out, over and over again, that the tendency must be to shut 

 out elementary science, because the great bulk of the schools are sure 

 to take history or geography. The last report shows how grievously 

 this has proved to be the case. . The President and Vice-President of 

 the Council, in the report just issued, say that elementary science 

 " does not appear to be taken advantage of to any great extent at 

 present." This is a very mild way of putting it. Mr. Colt Williams 

 says, more correctly, that "specific subjects are virtually dead." Mr. 

 Balmer observes that " specific subjects have been knocked on the 

 head." In fact, out of the four and a half million children in our 

 schools, less than twenty-five thousand were examined last year in any 

 branch of science as a specific subject. Take, for instance, the laws of 

 health and animal physiology. Only fourteen thousand children were 

 presented in this subject. Yet how important to our happiness and 

 utility! Neither Mr. Bright nor Mr. Gladstone, I believe, ever learned 

 any English grammar, and, as regards the latter, it has been recently 

 stated, by one who knows him intimately, that the splendid health he 



