158 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION 



different grades under local management, but subject to general 

 regulations laid down by a department of the government. The 

 Commission have shown how the necessary funds for such a 

 system can be obtained, and have proposed a definite scheme 

 for the administration of these funds. If schools, of several 

 grades systematically arranged, were once established, it would 

 be an easy matter to insist on the introduction into a given 

 number of each grade such distinctly scientific training as would 

 warrant the appellation of science schools, as distinguished from 

 classical schools, and results would soon show whether science 

 does or does not afford an excellent material for mental culture, 

 besides that merely useful information which it is not the chief 

 object of education to impart. If a system of graded schools 

 existed, we could apply towards their improvement the masses 

 of information which have been collected as to foreign courses 

 of study. Now, even when we know our own wishes, what 

 bodies are we to attack ? It is hopeless to expect that a suc- 

 cessful experiment on any great scale can be made so long as 

 the schools of the country are under an infinite number of 

 different trustees, corporations, and committees wholly incapable 

 of combined action. I do not purpose to-night to examine the 

 proposals of the Commission, but will direct your attention, in 

 connection with this part of the subject, to the report of the 

 Sub-Committee on Technical Education appointed by the London 

 Society of Arts. 



I fear, however, that we shall have to wait some years before 

 a complete system of graded schools can be established ; and it 

 is most desirable that even if a complete system of scientific in- 

 struction cannot be created offhand, something should be done 

 to remedy our deficiencies at once. I will therefore make a few 

 suggestions as to means by which the scientific education of 

 artisans and foremen, on the one hand, and manufacturers and 

 engineers, on the other hand, might be improved under existing 

 institutions. 



Workmen and teachers of workmen now receive some scien- 

 tific instruction from teachers in schools, assisted by the Science 

 and Art Department of the Committee of Council on Education ; 

 and in the Report for 1866, on Science Schools and Classes, 

 Captain Donnelly says, that ' the various modifications and en- 



