SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION: NOTES OF AN AFTER- 

 DINNER SPEECH 



[1869] 



[Mr. Thackeray, talking of after-dinner speeches, has lamented 

 that "one never can recollect the fine things one thought of in the cab," 

 in going to the place of entertainment. I am not aware that there are 

 any "fine things" in the following pages, but such as there are stand 

 to a speech which really did get itself spoken, at the hospitable table of 

 the Liverpool Philomathic Society, more or less in the position of 

 what "one thought of in the cab."] 



The introduction of scientific training into the general 

 education of the country is a topic upon which I could not 

 have spoken, without some more or less apologetic intro- 

 duction, a few years ago. But upon this, as upon other 

 matters, public opinion has of late undergone a rapid 

 modification. Committees of both Houses of the Legisla- 

 ture have agreed that something must be done in this direc- 

 tion, and have even thrown out timid and faltering sugges- 

 tions as to what should be done; while at the opposite pole 

 of society, committees of working men have expressed their 

 conviction that scientific training is the one thing needful 

 for their advancement, whether as men, or as workmen. 

 Only the other day, it was my duty to take part in the 

 reception of a deputation of London workingmen, who 

 desired to learn from Sir Roderick Murcliison, the Director 

 of the Royal School of Mines, whether the organisation of 

 the institution in Jermyn Street could be made available 

 for the supply of that scientific instruction the need of which 

 could not have been apprehended, or stated, more clearly 

 than it was by them. 



