76 TECHNICAL EDUCATION. [LEOT. 



I know that I am expressing the opinion of some 

 of the largest as well as the most enlightened em- 

 ployers of labour, when I say that there is a real 

 danger that, from the extreme of no education, we 

 may run to the other . extreme of over- education of 

 handicraftsmen. And I apprehend that what is true 

 for the ordinary hand-worker is true for the foreman. 

 Activity, probity, knowledge of men, ready mother- 

 wit, supplemented by a good knowledge of the gen- 

 eral principles involved in his business, are the making 

 of a good foreman. If he possess these qualities, 

 no amount of learning will fit him better for his posi- 

 tion ; while the course of life and the habit of mind 

 required for the attainment of such learning may, in 

 various direct and indirect ways, act as direct dis- 

 qualifications for it. 



Keeping in mind, then, that the two things to be 

 avoided are, the delay of the entrance of boys into 

 practical life, and the substitution of exhausted book- 

 worms for shrewd, handy men, in our works and fac- 

 tories, let us consider what may be wisely and safely 

 attempted in the way of improving the education of 

 the handicraftsman. 



First, I look to the elementary schools now happily 

 established all over the country. I am not going to 

 criticise or find fault with them ; on the contrary, 

 their establishment seems to me to be the most im- 

 portant and the most beneficial result of the corporate 

 action of the people in our day. A great deal is said 

 of British interests just now, but, depend upon it, 

 that no Eastern difficulty needs our intervention as a 



