138 REMINISCENCES OF 



was plainly demonstrated. At that time, the local 

 university examinations were becoming popular, 

 and were being held in a number of the larger 

 centres of population. At length one such was 

 held in Manchester, and when the usual annual 

 report of these examinations was published, Man- 

 chester stood at the bottom of the entire list. 



But whilst our complaints respecting the low stan- 

 dard of Manchester educationists were thus justified, 

 other influences equally unfavourable were at work. 

 At that time an opinion prevailed widely amongst 

 the merchants of the town, that if lads were to do any 

 good, either to their masters or to themselves, they 

 must enter the warehouses very early in life, t.e. t by 

 the time they were fourteen ; and, having done so, 

 they must undertake the most menial of the operations 

 which were demanded by the business men of the 

 day. That this conviction was then very widely 

 spread, even among the most intelligent portion of 

 the mercantile community, I know from my own 

 personal association with many such. But while 

 influences so unfavourable to the progress of the 

 college undoubtedly affected our position, there 

 remained other causes within the college itself not 

 calculated to promote our success. 



The trustees requested the professors to assist 

 them with their views as to the causes of the 

 threatened failure. Professor Frankland, who held 

 the Chair of Chemistry, spoke out very freely, and 

 said he thought the training was too exclusively 



