1887.] on the Work of the Imperial Institute. 121 



those whose circumstances would otherwise prevent them from en- 

 joying the advantages secured to their fellow- workers in other 

 countries. Several other directions readily suggest themselves in 

 which the judicious administration of resources in aid of the technical 

 training of eligible men of the artizan class could well form part of 

 the organised work of the Imperial Institute. 



By the establishment of an Education branch of the Intelligence 

 Department, which will form a very prominent section of the Imperial 

 Institute, the working of the colleges and schools of applied science 

 in all parts of the United Kingdom will be harmonised and assisted, 

 and the information continuously collected from all countries relating 

 to educational work and the application of the sciences to industrial 

 purposes and the arts will be systematically distributed. A well- 

 organised Enquiry Department will furnish to students coming to 

 Great Britain from the Colonies, Dependencies and India the requisite 

 information and advice to aid them in selecting their place of work 

 and their temporary home, and in various other ways. The collec- 

 tions of natural products of the Colonies and India, maintained up 

 to the day by additions and renewals at the central establishment 

 of the Institute, will be of great value to students in the immedi- 

 ately adjacent educational Institutions, and will moreover be made 

 subservient to the purposes of provincial industrial colleges by the 

 distribution of thoroughly descriptive reference catalogues, and of 

 S23ecimens. Supplies of natural products from. the Colonies, India, 

 or from other Countries, which are' either new or have been but 

 imperfectly studied, will be maintained, go that material may be 

 readily provided to the worker in science or the manufacturer, either 

 for scientific investigation or for purposes of technical experiment. 



The existence of those collections and of all information re- 

 lating to them, as well as of the libraries of technology, inventions, 

 commerce and applied geography, in immediate proximity to the 

 Government museums of science and inventions, art, and natural 

 history, to the Normal School of Science, and to the Central Technical 

 Institute, present advantages so obvious as to merit some fair con- 

 sideration by those who have declined to recognise any reason in 

 favour of the establishment of the Imperial Institute at South 

 Kensington. 



In the powerful public representations which have of late been 

 made on the imperative necessity for the greater dissemination and- 

 thorough organisation of industrial education, the importance of a 

 radical improvement in commercial education, as distinguished from 

 what is comprehended under the head of technical training, has 

 scarcely received that prominence which it merits. It is true that, in 

 some of our colleges, there are courses of instruction framed with 

 more especial reference to the requirements of those who propose to 

 enter into mercantile houses, or in other ways to devote themselves to 

 commercial pursuits ; but as a rule the mercantile employes, embraced 

 under the comprehensive title of clerks, begin their careers in life but 



