June 21, 1888] 



NATURE 



187 



Sir Edward Baines, for in him we have a living picture of the 

 history of the educational progress of the century. Truly, he 

 has been a witness, and an active witness, of English educa- 

 tional reform from his earliest years, nor have his efforts in the 

 great cause from that time forward ever ceased. Was he not 

 even as a boy in Eeeds so long ago as 1809 an earnest listener 

 to the expositions of one who may be justly regarded as the 

 founder of our present system of national education, I mean 

 Joseph Lancaster? The name of Baines, again, is intimately 

 connected with those of Birkbeck and Brougham in the great 

 work of founding mechanics' institutes. 



The English character is ever prone to consecutive action, 

 sudden revolutions are contrary to its spirit, and this character- 

 istic is evidenced by the present phase of interest in so-called 

 technical education, for this is doing nothing more than carrying 

 out in accordance with the necessities of the hour the old prin- 

 ciple enunciated by Birkbeck, Brougham, and Baines in 1825 

 in the founding of mechanics' institutions, which have for their 

 object the teaching to our workmen the principles of art and 

 science which underlie the trades they practise. This, too, is our 

 definition of technical instruction. We do not attempt to teach 

 trades, but the principles, artistic or scientific, upon which these 

 trades depend. The school can teach how to make the best 

 article, how to apply the principles which lie at the foundation 

 of the manufacture. The workshop, on the other hand, teaches 

 what the workshop alone can teach — how to produce the article 

 most economically. This I take to be the essential distinction 

 between school teaching and workshop practice. The boy at 

 school learns how to do the work well, the man at the factory or 

 shop must learn to do it not only well but most cheaply. If we 

 keep these two parts of the question separate, give to the school 

 what belongs to the school, and to the workshop what belongs 

 to the workshop, we shall avoid all conflict between the so 

 called theorist and the practical man, we shall preserve what is 

 greatly to be prized, our English workshop experience, but add 

 thereto a knowledge of principles which have hitherto been 

 greatly wanting. Each does necessary work ; what we desire 

 and need to develop and to foster is the proper union of theory 

 and practice, without which the supremacy in manufacturing 

 industry, the chief glory and mainstay of our country, will be 

 endangered in the industrial warfare in which all civilized nations 

 are now engaged. 



This, then, is the problem which Baines sought to solve, and 

 which your Union and all ardent educationists of the present 

 day are striving to accomplish. For this end we now seek 

 Government aid, and are asking for national recognition of a 

 national necessity. What else is the meaning of the Bills for the 

 promotion of technical education now before Parliament? We 

 ask simply for powers to develop and to strengthen the work 

 which mechanics' institutes were founded to accomplish. We 

 desire to carry on that work on sound lines ; that, whilst asking 

 for Imperial aid and for the imprimatur of a national system, we 

 shall be left- to decide for ourselves the exact mode of carrying 

 out that system which each locality and each special industry 

 knows is best adapted to satisfy its peculiar requirements. These 

 should be the main objects of any Technical Bill. Are these 

 objects properly put forward, and are these conditions properly 

 safe-guarded in the Government Technical Bill now before 

 Parliament ? This is the pressing question of the hour. It is for 

 you, and for similar associations throughout the length and 

 breadth of the land, to say whether this is so or not, to satisfy 

 yourselves on this point, and to urge your representative in 

 Parliament — than whom none is more willing or more able to 

 assist you — to see that your claims and opinions on this subject 

 are made known to the Government which is responsible for 

 bringing this great subject forward For, gentlemen, it is a 

 great question, one which lies at the foundation, of the future 

 welfare — I had almost said the future existence — of the nation. 



May I, then, venture to call your attention to one or two of the 

 salient poinds in this Bill, and to point out to you what I consider 

 some of its valuable provisions as well as some of its defects? In 

 the first place, then, the chief and leading principle of the Bill 

 is the recognition that the time has arrived for giving national 

 aid, whether from local rates or from Imperial sources, for the 

 promotion of technical instruction. The establishment of this 

 principle is one, I venture to think, of the highest possible 

 importance, which if once admitted may well cover a multitude 

 of minor defects. Still, every benefit may be purchased too dear, 

 and it is well to look at the conditions with which this concession 

 to public opinion is coupled. Here I am speaking to educa- 

 tionists, but I am also speaking in Yorkshire and to Yorkshiremen, 



who have always upheld, and especially at the present moment 

 do uphold, the standard of Liberal opinion in political as well as 

 in educational matters, and I therefore feel that in expressing my 

 opinion against certain conditions attached to the Bill— conditions 

 which are diametrically opposed to the ideas and principles upon 

 which the Liberal party has always acted — I say in expressing 

 these objections I may claim your support as well as your 

 attention. 



Clause 2 of the Bill makes it compulsory on every School 

 Board adopting its provisions as to technical instruction — that is, 

 upon every School Board undertaking to rate its district to the 

 limited penny in the pound — to aid thcsupply of technical instruc- 

 tion in any other public elementary school not under its 

 management in like manner as it aids the supply of such instruc- 

 tion in its own schools. This clause, which as you all will see 

 may be most sweeping in its effects, must be entirely rejected ; 

 indeed, it could not stand one hour's scrutiny in the House of 

 Commons, for it offends against the cardinal principle that those 

 who pay the rates should have a voice, either directly or in- 

 directly, in the spending of them, and this is not provided fqr. 

 But whilst strongly objecting to this compulsory clause — the only 

 compulsory one in the Bill — I, for one, am willing to consider, 

 and to deal fairly with, the just claims of the voluntary schools ; 

 for although I am a believer in the Liberal creed, I am before 

 all things an educationist, and I cannot forget that if we are to 

 have our children made more fit for succeeding in the modern 

 battle of life, we must endeavour to bring to bear upon them all, 

 without distinction of creed or of party, the lever which will 

 raise them in the social scale and enable them to use their heads 

 and their hands to their own benefit, and therefore to that of the 

 nation of which they for.n the units. 



Hence, remembering that more than one-half of our popula- 

 tion are educated in voluntary schools, and that in many localities 

 these schools are the only ones in existence, and moreover that 

 they are doing excellent educational work, I, speaking for myself, 

 whilst strongly opposed to any compulsory powers, do not feel 

 the same difficulty in admitting the provisions of the first clause 

 in the Bill by which "any School Board in England may from 

 time to time supply, or aid the supply of, such manual or 

 technical instruction or both, as may be required, for supplement- 

 ing the instruction in any public elementary school in its district, 

 whether under its own management or not." This clause, you 

 will perceive, enables School Boards if they think fit to assist 

 voluntary schools in their districts by aid from the rates for the 

 special purposes of technical instruction, and through the School 

 Board the ratepayers have a voice as to whether their rates shall 

 or shall not be thus spent. But here comes in the limiting 

 clause that not more than id. in the pound shall be spent. I 

 object to this limit. It will obviously be very difficult for any 

 School Board to ascertain how far the expenses of giving 

 technical instruction can be accurately defined, and I should 

 prefer to leave the amount spent on this object to the good sense 

 and judgment of the locality as represented by the School Board. 

 But how about districts which possess no School Board ? Are 

 they to be left out in the cold ? No. Provision is made in a 

 further clause by which any local authority having adopted the 

 Free Libraries Acts may hand over to the voluntary schools in 

 its district a sum not exceeding id. in the pound for the purpose 

 of supplying technical education to be given in its district public 

 elementary schools. Here again the clause is a permissive one 

 only, and the local authority as representing the ratepayers is 

 the judge of whether and how far such aid is to be given. I do 

 not like the plan of mixing up the vexed question of free libraries 

 with that of technical education, and should much prefer the 

 names of the authorities to be simply scheduled, as I see grave 

 objections to the necessary plebiscite in districts which have not 

 already adopted the Acts. Still I do not know that on this 

 account I should wish to see the Bill rejected. 



Another grave defect in the Bill is a limit is placed on the 

 teaching of technical subjects in Board schools at the seventh 

 standard. This deals a fatal blow at the higher elementary 

 schools. Thus in the Central School in Manchester at the 

 present moment no fewer than 500 scholars who have passed 

 Standard VII. are now learning the sciences — subjects included 

 within the term technical instruction. These scholars cannot 

 continue thus to be taught under the Bill. We must have a 

 similar provision introduced to that in the Scotch Bill, by which 

 the Boards are empowered to use the rates for the maintenance 

 of higher-grade schools ; and these matters must be attended to 

 if we are to have a Technical Bill worthy of the name. The 

 higher technical education, as that given in the Colleges, may be 



