TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 81 



and immediate bearing on his branch of industry, though 

 they lie at the foundation of all realities. 



Now let me apply the lessons I have learned from 

 my handicraft to yours. If any of you were obliged 

 to take an apprentice, I suppose you would like to get a 

 good healthy lad, ready and willing to learn, handy, and 

 with his fingers not all thumbs, as the saying goes. You 

 would like that he should read, write, and cipher well ; 

 and, if you were an intelligent master, and your trade in- 

 volved the application of scientific principles, as so many 

 trades do, you would like him to know enough of the 

 elementary principles of science to understand what was 

 going on. I suppose that, in nine trades out of ten, it 

 would be useful if he could draw; and many of you 

 must have lamented your inability to find out for your- 

 selves what foreigners are doing or have done. So that 

 some knowledge of French and German might, in many 

 cases, be very desirable. 



So it appears to me that what you want is pretty 

 much what I want ; and the practical question is, How 

 you are to get what you need, under the actual limita- 

 tions and conditions of life of handicraftsmen in this 

 country ? 



I think I shall have the assent both of the employ- 

 ers of labour and of the employed as to one of these 

 limitations; which is, that no scheme of technical edu- 

 cation is likely to be seriously entertained which will 

 delay the entrance of boys into working life, or prevent 



