December 19. 1805 J 



NA rURB 



It- 



tion throughout the country, it must be recc^nised that a great 

 deal of work is at present being done, some of which, we may 

 hope, is of very high practical utility, and all of which is of the 

 highest experimental value. That work is being carried on by 

 local and representative authorities, and it cannot but be an 

 advantage that those who are engaged in it should avail them- 

 selves of the opportunity now afforded to them of conference 

 and consultation with each other, and thus finding some of the 

 guidance which, under a more completely and thoroughly 

 organised system, they might possibly look for from some central 

 authority, 



On Friday last, the Duke of Devonshire opened the new 

 buildings of the Municipal Technical School at Birmingham, 

 and, in the evening of the same day, he distributed the prizes to 

 students in the school, and delivered an address. The following 

 is a condensed report of his remarks : — 



The first question which perhaps may of cur to some of you is, 

 " Why am I here at all ; why am I selected to address this 

 great meeting ? " I have been told before to-day, and I have 

 been told again to-night by the Mayor, that it is as President of 

 the Council and head of the Education Department that I am 

 here. I need scarcely tell you that in the somewhat remark- 

 able arrangements which control appointment to the great 

 political offices it does not follow at all that because a politician 

 IS appointed to be the head of the Education Department he 

 should know anything whatever about education. The fact that 

 I hold that office and that others have held that office before me 

 who know as little about education as I do, must convince you 

 that the mere fact of my holding that office does not confer upon 

 me any special qualification for the part I am expected to take 

 to-night, and I am afraid before the conclusion of my address 

 some of you may be reminded ofthe lines of the poet Pope, who, 

 in speaking of the presence of flies in amber, said : — 



" The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare, 

 But wonder how the — something — they got there." 



I know no more of science or of art than could be put into the 

 capacity of a couple of nutshells, but every member of Parliament 

 is supjxised to know something about education. Unfortunately 

 for my own peace of mind, upon one occasion, some years 

 ago now, I happened to be called upon to distribute prizes at a 

 polytechnic institute in London, where I made some observations 

 upon what I thought was an urgent and growing necessity for a 

 greater amount of attention being paid to the scientific and tech- 

 nical education of our people, which appeared to attract some 

 considerable attention. On the strength, I believe, of that 

 speech, I was asked to assume the post of president of a national 

 association for the promotion of technical and secondary educa- 

 tion, and since that unhappy moment my life has been more or 

 less a burden to me, and I have been called upon on more 

 occasions than I care to remember to deliver some observations 

 upon subjects of a scientific and an educational character. 



It does not require a scientific or educational expert to 

 show that the work which has been done and is being done and 

 is going to be done here is part of a work which is going on all 

 over the country, and which it is for the working population of 

 this country to take or to leave as they please, but it is a work 

 which it is necessary should be done if we intend to maintain 

 not only the industrial supremacy which we have hitherto 

 enjoyed, but even our existence as a great industrial nation. 

 Even upon such a subject as this I can pretend to speak with no 

 authority. All that I have done upon former occasions and all 

 that I can do now is to refer to what has been said by those who 

 can speak upon such a subject with greater authority than I can. 

 Prof. Huxley was one of those who have taken a lead in this move- 

 ment for the extension of scientific and technical training. These 

 words of his have been quoted before in this hall, but I shall 

 make no excuse to you for quoting them ^ain. He said : — 

 "We are at present in the swim of one of those vast move- 

 ments in which, with a population far in excess of that which 

 we can feed, we are saved from a catastrophe through the im- 

 possibility of feeding them solely by our possession of a fair 

 share of the markets of the world, and in order that that fair 

 share may be retained it is absolutely necessary that we should 

 be able to produce commodities which we can exchange with 

 food-growing people, and which they will take rather than those 

 of our rivals, on the ground of their greater cheapness or their 

 greater excellence. That is the whole story. Our course, let 

 me say, is not actuated by mere motives of ambition or by 

 mere motives of greed. Those, doubtless, are visible enough 



NO. 1364, VOL. 53] 



on the surface of these great movements, but the movements 

 themselves have far deeper sources. Our sole chance of 

 succeeding in the competition which must constantly Ix-come 

 more and more severe is that our people shall not only have the 

 knowledge and the skill which are required, but that they shall 

 have the will and the energy and the honesty without which 

 neither knowledge nor skill can be of any permanent avail." 



I should like to add a commentary on those words which was 

 .supplied, also, I think, on an occasion similar to this, by 

 Sir Henry Roscoe, who has taken a distinguished and a 

 leading part in this movement. Having quoted those words of 

 Prof. Huxley which I have read. Sir Henry Roscoe said : " This 

 great endeavour to place our population in a position to obtain 

 the industrial supremacy which it has long held and to ensure 

 that supremacy is surely of more fundamental importance than 

 any passing political question of the day. Upon the successful 

 solution of this problem depends our very national existence. 

 Pre.ssed on all sides by the superior scientific education of 

 Germany, by the boundless physical resources and indomitable 

 energy of America, we in this country should have enough to do 

 to hold our own in the coming struggle for existence. Hitherto 

 we have rested content with that pre-eminence which our coal 

 and our iron, our insular position, the energy and capability of 

 our race, have given us ; such a state of contentment is at the 

 present time a delusion and a snare. We can afford no longer 

 to live in a false paradise. Our competitors have adopted our 

 industrial methods ; they have bought our machinery, and are 

 now not only treading on our heels but are surpassing us. Our 

 competitors have adopted our own discoveries and inventions, 

 and are, as it were, working out our own designs. Watt, 

 Stephenson, Arkwright and Crumpton, Whitworth and 

 Bessemer, have made the world akin in more senses than one. 

 Rapid and cheap transit has revolutionised commerce and 

 industry, and raw materials flow in and finished products flow 

 out, and it is to the nation as well as to the men which furnishes 

 that finished article most cheaply and best that victory comes. 

 This, then, is the meaning of technical and industrial training — 

 to fit our people from top to bottom, from the future leader of 

 industry to the lowest handworker, with the means, so far as 

 education can do so successfully, to carry out his life's work. 

 This is the great task we have set ourselves to accomplish." I 

 ask you whether in your opinion this language is exaggerated. 

 I do not think that any man of business who is present here this 

 evening will deny the increasing strain of the competition to 

 which we are exposed. He may not accept the remedies which we 

 suggest, but he will not deny the existence of a danger which 

 we fear. 



No one, I think, can doubt the closeness of the connection in 

 the present day between science and industrial pursuits — 

 scientific discovery on the one hand and mechanical invention 

 on the other. These are the factors of industrial progress in 

 this or in any other country. Scientific discovery has made 

 known to us the new properties and qualities of matter ; and 

 mechanical invention, on the other hand, has applied those dis- 

 coveries to industrial processes. How can we expect that our 

 nation can take full advantage of those discoveries ; how can we 

 expect that we can .satisfy the wants of the world which expects 

 to be put in instant possession of all the advantages of these 

 successful discoveries, unless we have trained managers and 

 foremen who are competent to take instant advantage of every 

 one of those discoveries in science or mechanical invention and 

 possess the scientific skill to apply them ; and how can we 

 obtain these managers and foremen unless we place within the 

 reach of the great masses of our people and of our working men 

 facilities for acquiring that scientific knowledge ? I may further 

 ask you, can these managers and foremen themselves expect to 

 make the most of their own abilities without the assistance of 

 workmen whose eye and whose hand and whose intelligence 

 have been properly trained to carry out their instructions ? 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — For many years the annual reports of the 

 University Extension Delegacy have recorded steady progress 

 in the work committed to its supervision. The report just 

 issued shows that, from September 1894 to May 1895, ^544 

 lectures were delivered in connection with the Delegacy. The 



