TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 93 



promotion of excellence among handicraftsmen. Quite 

 recently, other of the livery companies have determined 

 upon giving their powerful, and, indeed, almost bound- 

 less, aid to the improvement of the teaching of handi- 

 crafts. They have already gone so far as to appoint a 

 committee to act for them ; and I betray no confidence 

 in adding that, some time since, the committee sought 

 the advice and assistance of several persons, myself 

 among the number. 



Of course I cannot tell you what may be the result 

 of the deliberations of the committee ; but we may all 

 fairly hope that, before long, steps which will have a 

 weighty and a lasting influence on the growth and 

 spread of sound and thorough teaching among the handi- 

 craftsmen* of this country will be taken by the livery 

 companies of London. 



[This hope has been fully justified by the establishment of the 

 Cowper Street Schools, and that of the Central Institution of 

 the City and Guilds of London Institute. September 1881.] 



* It is perhaps advisable to remark that the important question of 

 the professional education of managers of industrial works is not 

 touched in the foregoing remarks. 



