160 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION 



after infinite labour, somehow to pick up such a knowledge of 

 drawing as allows them to understand the simpler representa- 

 tions of machinery and construction. Not a few teach them- 

 selves how to draw a little ; but they have to teach themselves, 

 or at least to learn in little classes, where the appliances and 

 assistance received is almost pitiable. The men requiring this 

 knowledge are the whole class of skilled workmen ; and so im- 

 portant is this knowledge to them that the French Government 

 Commission on Technical Education came to the conclusion, 

 that for the working classes technical education meant instruction 

 in mechanical drawing ; and I entirely agree with this conclusion 

 because, as I have said before, it is a tool or key with which the 

 able and energetic can for themselves open fresh paths to know- 

 ledge, and because experience has shown that it can be taught, 

 and taught successfully, to men who have only learnt how to 

 write, read, and cipher. 



Which is really the most important to the working classes 

 in Great Britain, such a power of representing objects by free- 

 hand drawing as can be given to workmen, coupled with such 

 an appreciation of the fine arts as they can be expected to 

 acquire ; or the power of representing the elements of machinery 

 and constructive details, coupled with the power of understand- 

 ing the representation of mechanism and structures ? 



The first branch of knowledge will be useful to all those 

 classes engaged in the design and execution of artistic produce. 

 The second branch of knowledge will be useful to all engaged 

 with those productions which require the use of machinery or 

 structures. Can we doubt which is the most important class in 

 England or in any country ? The whole agricultural population 

 of this country, and the whole manufacturing population except 

 the artists, using this word in its largest sense, require a know- 

 ledge of mechanical drawing, and the artists would be the better 

 for having it. 



Now, let us compare what Government does for mechanical 

 drawing, as compared with artistic drawing for art as com- 

 pared with science. 



There are 99 Government schools of art in which free-hand 

 drawing is taught, and aid is given to 560 other schools. 1 7,210 

 students learn free-hand drawing in the Government schools ; 



