122 Sir Frederick Abel [April 22, 



ill prepared to be more than mechanical labourers, and remain 

 greatly dependent upon accident, or uipon their desire for self- 

 improvement which directs them in time to particular lines of study, 

 for their prospects of future success in commercial life. 



This impressed itself strongly upon the Eoyal Commission on the 

 Depression of Trade and Industry, who state as the result of evidence 

 collected by them that our deficiency in the matter of education as 

 compared with some of our foreign comj^etitors relates " not only to 

 what is usually called technical education, but also to the ordinary 

 commercial education which is required in mercantile houses." The 

 ordinary clerk in a merchant's office is too often made to feel his 

 inferiority to his German colleague, not merely in regard to his 

 lamentable deficiency in the knowledge of languages, but in respect 

 to almost every branch of knowledge bearing upon the intelligent 

 performance of his daily work and upon his prospect of advancement 

 in one or other branch of a mercantile house. The preliminary 

 training for commercial life on the Continent is far more compre- 

 hensive, j)ractical and systematic than that which is attainable in this 

 country, and the student of commerce abroad has, afterwards, oppor- 

 tunities for obtaining a high scientific and practical training at 

 distinct branches of the polytechnic schools and in establishments 

 analogous to the technical colleges, such as the High Schools of 

 Commerce in Paris, Antwerp, and Vienna. 



It will be w^ell within the scoj)e of the Imperial Institute as an 

 organisation for the advancement of industry and commerce, to pro- 

 mote a systematic improvement and organisation of commercial 

 education by measures analogous to those which it will bring to bear 

 upon the advancement of industrial education. 



The very scant recognition which the great cause of technical edu- 

 cation has hitherto received at the hands of our administrators has, at 

 any rate, the good effect of rousing and stimulating that power of self- 

 help which has been the foundation of many achievements of greatest 

 pride to the Nation, and we may look with confidence to the united 

 exertions of the people of this country, through the medium of the 

 representative organisation which they are now founding, for the 

 early development of a comprehensive national system of technical 

 education, of the nature foreshadowed not long since by Lord 

 Harrington, in that important address which has raised bright hopes 

 in the hearts of the Apostles of education. 



In some of the views which have been of late put forward regard- 

 ing the possible scope of the Imperial Institute, the antagonism 

 which has been raised and fostered against its location in the vicinity 

 of some of our National Establishments most intimately connected 

 with the educational advancement of the Empire, has developed a 

 tendency to circumscribe its future sphere of usefulness, and to place 

 its functions as a great establishment of reference and resort for the 

 commercial man in the chief foreground. I have endeavoured to 

 indicate directions in which its relations to the Colonies and India. 



