vin TECHNICAL EDUCATION 215 



England to accomplish in the organisation of our 

 secondary and scientific training, in which our com- 

 petitors are before us, and of which the importance 

 and the effects are well summed up in the following 

 opinion of an eminent German manufacturer : " We 

 in Germany do not care whether you in England are 

 free-traders or protectionists, but what we are afraid of 

 is that some day your people will wake up to the 

 necessity of having a complete system of technical and 

 scientific education, and then with your energetic 

 population, with your insular position, and with your 

 stores of raw material it will be difficult, or it may be 

 impossible, for us to compete." 



SECONDARY EDUCATION 



In the spring of 1894 a Royal Commission on 

 Secondary Education was appointed. It was com- 

 posed of seventeen gentlemen (including myself) and 

 three ladies; my friend the Rt. Hon. James Bryce, 

 M.P., acted as chairman. The Commission sat for a 

 considerable number of months and issued a Report 

 which exerted great influence in pointing out the 

 position of secondary education in England compared 

 with that in other countries, and which suggested 

 remedies which ought to be applied to place this 

 subject on a proper footing. 



In November, 1896, I introduced a large and 

 representative deputation to urge upon the Lord 

 President of the Council (the Duke of Devonshire) 

 the desirability of taking steps to enforce the re- 

 commendations of that Commission. I pointed out 

 that the deputation, representing the National Associa- 

 tion for the Promotion of Technical and Secondary 

 Education, the Association of Directors and Organising 



