July 5, 1883] 



NA TURE 



221 



in its scientific aspect, and pregnant with so many benefits 

 to mankind at large. 



He was buried on Saturday, his remains being placed 

 beside those of his wife in the family vault at Tewin ; the 

 funeral, in accordance with his own wish, being of the 

 simplest character. In addition to the members of his 

 family and private friends, the funeral was attended by 

 the Secretary and Treasurer of the Royal Society, the 

 Hydrographer to the Admiralty, and representatives of 

 the other Government services with which he had been 

 so long connected. 



A MINISTER OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 



WE are a longsuffering, patient people. The call of 

 Luther to those around him to educate their 

 children and make men of them, as well as provide them 

 with arms — a call at once answered in Germany— is only 

 just now being answered among ourselves. 



One of the most beautiful and one of the most 

 touching sights in London now, and one which in 

 our view is a standing disgrace to the politicians who 

 have held sway during the last hundred years, is the 

 gradual rising above dingy roofs and millions of chimneys 

 of the red brick Roard schools. The children in London 

 at all events are now being educated, and our future 

 masters are receiving ihe first rudiments of their instruc- 

 tion, and this much more on account of the intention of 

 their fathers to have it for them, than on account of any 

 farseeing policy of those who are popularly supposed to 

 look in any and every direction for anything that may 

 conduce to the well-being of our country. We have at 

 last got a public instruction, and it is already in the air 

 that that instruction will in time be as free as it is now 

 compulsory. It is a heartbreaking thing to look back 

 and think what might have been had these all too recently 

 built schools overtopped the squalid dwellings of the poor 

 a century ago. How much less squalid those dwellings 

 would be now. The monumental and extensive prisons 

 would probably be less occupied in their every cell than 

 they are now, but the well-being of the country, the output 

 of the country would have been greater, and the struggle 

 with penury, and dirt, and crime would have been less. 



This is only one aspect of education, but yet it seems 

 that in this country at all events it is the mainspring of 

 public opinion with regard to the general question. The 

 cry — on many grounds the mistaken cry — for technical 

 instruction has grown from the work of the Board 

 schools, it has gone along the same line at a higher level, 

 and it will go on still further. The enormous develop- 

 ment of the Government Science and Art Classes will also 

 go on, and to the credit of the late Sir Henry Cole be it 

 said here that he was wiser than the politicians, and his 

 clear sight and singlemindedness influenced the head of 

 the department with which he was connected, so that the 

 quiet, slow work in science and art began in 1S51, long 

 before the present notions of the importance of education 

 really began to take root in our land. 



Now that compulsory education is in our midst, now that 

 the importance of science and of art to the national in- 

 dustries is universally acknowledged, now that it is recog- 

 nised that the education of our workmen must no longer 

 be so disgracefully neglected as it has been, it is again 



suggested that there should be a Minister to look after 

 these matters. 



Ten years ago, as it was well put, the Rinderpest was 

 the care of the Government side by side with the Rinder- 

 pest. Both were practically on the same level, both were 

 acknowledged to be nuisances, both might require a 

 public department to look after them, and then money 

 would have to be spent. This was quite a sufficient 

 argument with " statesmen " to let things go on in the old 

 harum-scarum way ; for the policy of a Government is to 

 keep money in its purse, honestly if it can, but in any 

 case to do so, as if England were a miser, acknowledging 

 no responsibilities, spurning all delights and wishing to 

 live a sordid life like the burghers, caring only for their 

 dykes and pikes, whom Luther shamed out of their 

 indifference centuries ago. 



There has again, this week, been a suggestion made that 

 there should be a Minister of Public Instruction, who 

 should be responsible for the preparedness of the country 

 in this respect, just as the Minister of War is responsible 

 for the preparedness of it in another direction. Sir John 

 Lubbock must be congratulated upon the way in which 

 he brought the motion forward last Friday. It was a 

 mild, pleading story. As long ago as 1856, he pointed out, 

 the late Lord Derby said : — 



" It appeared to him well worthy of consideration 

 whether it would not be well to have a Minister, or the 

 head of a department, who should have no other duties 

 to perform, and who should be, in fact, responsible for 

 the education of the people. . . . He had a strong feeling 

 that the institution of a Minister of Instruction was 

 desirable, that the subject should be altogether separated 

 from the Privy Council." 



But that did no gool. In 1862 there was another reso- 

 lution put to the House calling on it to affirm that for the 

 education estimates and for the expenditure of all moneys 

 for the promotion of education, science, and art a Minis- 

 ter of the Crown should be responsible to the House. 

 That also did no good. In 1865 a Select Committee was 

 moved for to inquire into the constitution of the Com- 

 mittee of the Council on Education. It was then urged 

 that education and science and art were beginning to be 

 considered of such importance that — 



" The great duty of superintending the various branches 

 connected with the Department of Education should be 

 intrusted to some one responsible Minister, some Minis- 

 ter who should be regarded as a State officer of high 

 authority who should have the sole conduct of that 

 department, and be solely responsible." 



And that was shelved. 



Nine years later, in 1874, the same view was urged, 

 and the present Prime Minister then admitted "that there 

 was much to be said in favour of the general principle 

 that the expenditure of money for the promotion of edu- 

 cation in science and in art should be placed under the 

 control of a single responsible Minister." It is true he 

 said this, but he supported the previous question, so that 

 again came to nothing. 



Now that education and science are the great things of 

 the day, not only in this but in all countries, England 

 enjoys the proud preeminence of being the only country 

 — civilised country, we know nothing of Timbuctoo — in 

 which there is not a Minister of Public Instruction. It is 

 lamentable, terrible, to read the debate of last Friday, 



