TECHNICAL EDUCATION 173 



but only endeavouring to make some practical suggestions, which 

 mio-ht be carried into effect without extensive parliamentary 

 legislation, and, omitting any reference to what may be called 

 the secondary schools, I will now make some remarks on profes- 

 sional and scientific education of the higher grades. 



I am opposed to the creation of special colleges for the edu- 

 cation of special professions. In my introductory lecture deli- 

 vered at the University I explained at some length my reasons 

 for preferring that our universities should be developed so as 

 to train men for the new learned professions. It is said, and 

 said truly, that the universities will never be able to train so 

 fully for any one profession as a special school would, and this 

 with me is a reason for preferring the university. A special 

 college will attempt to teach a man to be an engineer, and I 

 hold that it will necessarily fail in doing this, for that practice 

 is the only training which can ever give a man that knowledge 

 which is essential before he can be called an engineer. I 

 apprehend that what is true of engineering, civil and mechan- 

 ical, is also true of the cognate professions of architecture, 

 building, and of the management of large factories. These 

 things cannot really be taught in classes ; and a personal 

 inspection of the very excellent special colleges abroad only 

 convinced me that they were (so far as a great portion of pro- 

 fessional training is concerned) merely passable makeshifts, 

 replacing the English plan of apprenticeship by an inferior 

 system. 



But while the business or profession can only be taught by 

 practice, the preparation for that practice can and ought to be 

 given in schools. This preparation is admirably given in the 

 foreign colleges, but here again the special college labours under 

 a special disadvantage. The preparation for the learned pro- 

 fessions should consist in the acquirement of the fundamental 

 sciences of mathematics, chemistry, and physics, with some 

 derived or secondary sciences, such as mechanics, geology, etc. 

 Now all these things are already taught at universities, and 

 the universities command the very best men as professors. It 

 is better that all the architects, engineers, and manufacturers 

 should learn their mathematics, chemistry, and physics from 

 one man in one class-room, for thev will then learn from the 



