vin TECHNICAL EDUCATION 203 



1888, Catford Bridge, Dulwich, and Oxford; 1889, 

 Goldsmiths' Hall and Preston; 1890, at Coventry 

 and Edinburgh ; 1892, at Birmingham ; 1893, at 

 Chelmsford, Walsall, and Alnwick Castle. 



As indicating the mode in which I presented the 

 question on these occasions, I may quote shortly from 

 some of my remarks at the Nottingham University 

 College. This college stands on a different footing 

 from other institutions, and is an interesting case, inas- 

 much as it was, unlike any of the institutions then exist- 

 ing, a municipal institution and pointed the way to the 

 proper foundation and organisation of municipal techni- 

 cal schools throughout the country. We hear a great 

 deal about our national military and naval defences, and 

 I should be the last to decry the importance of these, 

 but there are other defences which we need. We need 

 educational defences, and these are not less important 

 than those which are usually called the defences of the 

 country. We have heard what enormous changes take 

 place every year in warlike appliances. We know that 

 our battleships are year by year becoming useless, that 

 our " Hearts of Oak " have now become plates of 

 steel, and that our guns require constant renewal and 

 improvement. In the army, also, not only arms of 

 precision require improvement, but the mode of warfare 

 likewise changes. So it is with our educational defences. 

 So it is in the battle which we have to fight to secure 

 our national position in industrial affairs. And now at 

 last it is borne in upon us that it is absolutely necessary 

 to put our house in order with regard to the instruc- 

 tion of the people. English characteristics have been, 

 and still are, eminently practical. We prided ourselves, 

 and do still, I presume, on being a practical nation, and 

 we have been rather in the habit of looking upon pro- 

 fessors and schoolmasters as theoretical kind of people, 



