4IO Rkport S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



gut lo do this lo be cunscious of the characU-r of the powerful move- 

 ment which was and is in progress. The story of technical educa- 

 tion alone would suffice to bring conviction. Prior to 1887, were the 

 years of criticism and individual effort ; in July of that year the 

 " National Association for the Promotion of Technical Education " 

 was formed ; then came two years of agitation and abortive attempts 

 at legislation ; the consummation of this was the passing in the year 

 1889 of the Technical Instruction Act, conferring upon County 

 Councils and certain other bodies the power to levy a rate for thi 

 purpose of promoting technical instruction; in 1890 the subject was 

 recognised in the elementary education code; 1890 was also the 

 year of the fortunate accident b\ which the unappropriated residue 

 of the beer and spirit duty was given over to^ the County Councils for 

 the same purposes as the proceeds of the rate of the Act of 1889; 

 the year 1891 saw the foundation of the London Polytechnics; and 

 year by year since then the number of technical subjects dealt with 

 l)v the bodies concerned has increased in a remarkable degree, even 

 including the constituents of what would at one time have been dif- 

 ferentiated as " commercial "' educalicjn, " technological " education, 

 and so forth. Alarming sums have been annually spent, and many 

 are the schemes which different councils have inaugurated, and 

 proved to be not wholly effective : but yet the movement as a whole 

 shows no sign of slacking. The same tendency, though less pro- 

 nounced, is e\ident in connection with University education, and 

 might be illustrated quite similarly. Let one fact alone be given ; 

 it will be ample for any one who can look l^ack to the predominant 

 importance once assigned to the classical languages in university 

 curricula, and to the i)itying scorn with which the early opponents 

 of this predominance were met: — the new Lhiiversilv of London (a 

 now by no means unimportant corporation) welcomes undergraduaia 

 who have no kjiowlcdge of Latin at aU. The modernising stream. 

 in fact, would seem tO' widen as the vears ad\ance. " Nature-study ' 

 has quite recently been edged into the Code of the Elementarv 

 Schools: and "brewing"' and "commerce"' have been honourabh 

 entered on the curriculum of a universitv which in more points than 

 this prides itself on being " modern." 



The next of the tendencies ol)servable in English educa- 

 tional hist(jry is towards Organisation, and it mav at once 

 be remarked that no prominent countrv of the world has 

 stood more in need of a change in (his diredicjn. Up 

 almost to the middle of the nineteenth centurv there was chaos in 

 every division of English education: and even in 1846 when the 

 first step towards reff>rm was taken, it was only clementar \ education 

 that was thought of. The idea of a country's education being an 

 organic whole, and requiring treatment as such, had crossed few 

 men's minds. .Although, therefore, the next fiftv vears brought 

 great developments in elementary education, the i)epartment con- 

 trolling it took no cognisance of other branches, save in so far as to 

 add to existing confusion by the formation of " higher-grade " 

 schools. Then simultaneouslv with this growth, there was a like 



