IIL] TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 77 



nation so seriously, as the putting down both the 

 Bashi-Bazouks of ignorance and the Cossacks of sec- 

 tarianism at home. What has already been achieved 

 in these directions is a great thing ; you must have 

 lived some time to know how great. An education, 

 better in its processes, better in its substance, than 

 that which was accessible to the great majority of 

 well-to-do Britons a quarter of a century ago, is now 

 obtainable by every child in the land. Let any man 

 of my age go into an ordinary elementary school, and, 

 unless he was unusually fortunate in his youth, he 

 will tell you that the educational method, the intelli- 

 gence, patience, and good temper on the teacher's 

 part, which are now at the disposal of the veriest 

 waifs and wastrels of society, are things of which he 

 had no experience in those costly middle-class schools, 

 which were so ingeniously contrived as to combine all 

 the evils and shortcomings of the great public schools 

 with none of their advantages. Many a man, whose 

 so-called education cost a good deal of valuable money 

 and occupied many a year of invaluable time, leaves 

 the inspection of a well-ordered elementary school 

 devoutly wishing that, in his young days, he had 

 had the chance of being as well taught as these boys 

 and girls are. 



But while, in view of such an advance in general 

 education, I willingly obey the natural impulse to be 

 thankful, I am not willing altogether to rest. I want 

 to see instruction in elementary science and in art 

 more thoroughly incorporated in the educational sys- 

 tem. At present, it is being administered by driblets, 



