v PROFESSOR AT OWENS COLLEGE 103 



in six months he might find lodgings there! That 

 this opinion as to the future of the college was also 

 generally prevalent is shown by the fact that the 

 tenancy of a house in Dover Street was actually 

 refused to me when the landlord learnt that I was a 

 professor in that institution. 



Public opinion in Manchester at that time did not 

 appreciate the value of the higher education, and it was 

 not understood that science could be made an efficient 

 instrument of education, and that such an education 

 was absolutely necessary for an industrial career. To 

 make a school of chemistry worthy of the great 

 manufacturing district of South Lancashire was my 

 ambition, and after thirty years of work I think it must 

 be admitted that this was, to some extent at least, real- 

 ised, for there were, I believe, few engaged in that dis- 

 trict in any large way of business in which chemistry 

 plays a part who did not show their appreciation of 

 the value of scientific education by sending their sons 

 or their managers to learn chemistry at Owens College. 



The deed of the founder specified that the instruc- 

 tion to be given in his institution should be similar to 

 that given in the English Universities, but that no 

 restriction as to religious belief was to be placed 

 either on the teachers or the taught, and that no in- 

 struction was to be given that could in any way be 

 offensive to the religious susceptibilities of parents or 

 guardians. Its secular character placed the college in 

 opposition to the prevalent views of the orthodox, and 

 possibly it was in order to allay the feeling of hostility 

 that the Principal was in the habit of delivering a 

 series of lectures on " The Influence of Religion on the 

 Life of the Scholar. " These were given in the chemistry 

 lecture theatre and were open to the general public, 

 and were, of course, mainly attended by ladies, who 

 were much impressed by the rhetoric of the Principal. 



