10 riii'; ]iT. HON. s. cave's i'RESidential address. 



It is refreshing to turn to the last Eeport of the Science and 

 Art Department, just issued, whicli I commend to the study 

 of all who take an interest in real education as distinguished 

 from mere cram. Having already exceeded my limit, 1 can do 

 no more than glance at the various subjects in which examina- 

 tions have been held, merely premising that besides grants from 

 Government there are prizes for practical work founded by 

 private benefactors, among whom I may mention Sir Joseph 

 Whitworth, of Manchester, and the Plasterers' Company, who 

 have revived the original intention of the great city guilds, 

 namely, the improvement of tlie trades witii which they are 

 connected. In the science branch pajjcrs have been worked 

 in geometry, in the construction of machines, buildings, and 

 ships ; in mathematics and mechanics, in acoustics, on light, 

 heat, magnetism, and electricity ; in chemistry, geology, 

 mining, mineralogy, and metallurgy ; in zoology, economic 

 botany, in navigation, on steam, and in physical geo.^raphy. 

 In the art branch aid is given to drawing in elementary and 

 night schools, " where specially directed to the improvement 

 of the perceptive powers of the children." Grants are also 

 made to more advanced schools, in which the student pursues 

 the technical study of art in the direction required by his 

 occupation. In both branches assistance is given towards 

 the training of competent teachers. I am glad to say that 

 the payment of fees is considered essential to the maintenance 

 of a proper system of insti-uction. People I'arely value what 

 they get for nothing, and the artizau classes are, generally 

 speaking, well able to pay for the improvement of themselves 

 and of their children. 



We are at this moment in a transition state: old things are 

 passing away, all things are becoming new. The skilled 

 artizan can now obtain a far larger income than at any former 

 ]»erio(l. Like other people who have come suddenly into for- 

 tunes, he sometimes makes a queer use of it. The immense 

 increase in the spirit duties, among other things, shows that 

 much of this wealth is squandered in sensual and brutalizing 

 pleasures ; but let us not forget that such were the pleasures 

 of classes much above Jrtiim less than a century ago. And 

 what has to a great degree weaned those classes from such 

 ])leasures ? Surely the superior attraction of those pursuits 

 for the advancement of which this Association was formed. 

 A nation cannot be civilized by Act of Parliament any more 

 than it can be dragooned into religion. Both plans have been 

 tried, and both have failed. P>ut as the streamlets pierce our 

 red cliffs, and l)ring them down piecemeal year after year, so 



