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and at the present time a large trade is being done in fancy 
textiles in which the yarn is exported from England and the 
goods are returned to this country and here purchased entirely 
because of the superiority in the designing and dyeing. When 
I visited Roubaix, the Bradford of France, I saw the plans of 
a new technical school that was to be built in that town. A 
friend who recently returned from Roubaix, informed me he had 
been over the complete building, which was replete with every 
possible facility for art instruction, and for the teaching of 
designing in its application to textile fabrics. Equally complete 
is the chemical laboratory, with its splendid dyeing department. 
My friend informed me the building had cost £80,000 out of 
the rates, and that the manufacturers boast they will pay for it 
out of the profits of their trade with Kngland and the United 
States. A short time ago, in company with Sir Henry Roscoe, 
I visited the Exhibition at Paris. We inspected the exhibits 
of some of the technical schools of France, which we visited as 
fellow-commissioners seven years ago, and we were greatly 
impressed by the many evidences of growth and improvement in 
the educational machinery of France and other countries since 
that time. But we were most impressed by the great strides 
made in all those decorative branches of industry, the excellence 
of which may be more or less distinctly attributed to the schools. 
We were often told by Frenchmen that we hadn’t got the art 
faculty, that we could make steam engines and build ships, 
smelt pig-iron and spin cotton, but that we had no taste, no 
idea of form, colour, beauty or design. I repudiate this 
altogether. Give to the Englishman the same chances of artistic 
culture as are open to the poorest in other countries, and it 
would be found that the Englishman possesses that art faculty 
as strongly as his rival. But our people must not be denied the 
training. We cannot reap unless we sow. With all earnestness 
I would say with Mr. William Morris, I do not want art for 
a few, but for the nation, and in the same spirit and proportion 
I would say, I want science and every other element of use- 
fulness and culture by which the people can be raised in 
efficiency. I do not mean that every apprentice should be 
required to attend a technical school, nor do I expect that we 
should have in our towns technical schools proportionate to the 
number of workmen and employers engaged in our great 
industries. Iam also forced to admit that technical education 
so-called, has but little bearing upon some of the most important 
sections of British industry which at present are organised 
under minute sub-divisions of labour. But I do ask that all 
boys and girls shall receive such practical training in the day 
schools as will enable them to take advantage of theoretical or 
technical instruction if required by their calling, and that in 
