222 



NA TURE 



\_July 5, 1883 



and to see the way in which the question was dis- 

 cussed. Mr. Gladstone was impressed by the condition 

 of the House at nine o'clock, but it does not appear 

 that he was impressed with anything else ; the importance 

 of education, the importance of science, the importance 

 of art, the daily, almost hourly, increasing importance 

 of these things does not seem to have entered into 

 the question. To a large extent it was merely a question 

 of Cabinet convenience and Parliamentary tweedledum 

 and tweedledee. How can there be made room in the 

 Cabinet for a Minister of Public Instruction ? Are not 

 the affairs of the Duchy of Lancaster of much greater 

 importance, and would not the recognition of the import- 

 ance of education make the Cabinet unwieldy and give 

 rise to difficulties in Parliamentary procedure? And then 

 there is the Scotch business that must be looked after 

 first, and so on, and so on. Education is evidently not 

 in the region of practical politics. 



Heaven knows changes sufficiently great have been 

 made of late years, and it is not absolutely certain that 

 the fundamental bearings of the nature of the changes to 

 be made have in all cases been fully considered ; but it 

 seems as though they are to be most carefully considered 

 before any change is made touching the matter of 

 education. 



Still it is acknowledged that the question is, after all, 

 one that deserves the attention of Parliament, but Mr. 

 Gladstone had, as usual, three objections to make. In the 

 first place he expressed very great doubt whether, if he 

 had a plan ready to alter the present arrangement 

 it would be wise to make any declaration on the 

 subject by way of motion. Secondly, he admitted that 

 there was no plan, and he did not think the time had 

 arrived for one ; and lastly, he considered that the sub- 

 ject ought to be a great deal more examined before the 

 House committed itself to a final opinion whether there 

 should be a plan or not. 



With reference to his first objection he stated that the 

 House knew perfectly well that administrative changes 

 are made piecemeal, and must continue to be so ; and he 

 remarked that there was a good deal to be said in favour 

 of what was called a patched house, because most of us 

 found it the most comfortable sort of house to live in. 

 A Minister of Public Instruction would be a new patch, 

 and as there is patching going on elsewhere he objects to 

 this ; and so on and so on. 



The argument which he used in favour of the second 

 objection was, we imagine, the strongest he could have 

 used against it, namely, that the business of the Council 

 Office in respect to education has been in an almost 

 incessant state of flux and change. Of this there can 

 be no doubt that the flux and change will get more pro- 

 nounced as time goes on. That is the very reason why 

 everything should be brought to a focus. 



We may gather from Mr. Gladstone's speech that the 

 Universities should ever, in his opinion, remain divorced 

 fKm the general question of education ; but if so, what 

 is to become of Prof. Huxley's ladder from the gutter 

 to the university ? We think, too, if Mr. Gladstone hai 

 been fully informed on the subject he could have urged as 

 an additional objection that a great many questions re- 

 ferring to education are never now touched by the Edu- 

 cation Department at all. 



Several of the speeches might, if we had more space at 

 our disposal, be noticed at some length. Still, we think it 

 worthwhile to cull the following from the speech of Mr. 

 Forster, an old Vice-President of the Committee of the 

 Council on Education : — 



" The Committee of the Council for Trade, or Agri- 

 culture, or Education meant nothing whatever. Persons 

 might imagine that the Privy Council occasionally met 

 for the transaction of business, but they never did so either 

 in England or Ireland. The Minister for Agriculture was 

 the President of the Committee of the Council on Agri- 

 culture, but he greatly doubted whether that Committee 

 ever met, or ever would meet. . . . The real objection (to 

 Sir John Lubbock's proposal) probably was that it was 

 undesirable to make too much of education, that if we 

 were to have a Minister of Education he might be pushing 

 things on too quickly. . . . There might be a fear that 

 under one Minister too much money would be spent. . . . 

 What was complained of now was that there was no 

 really defined responsibility. The man who moved the 

 estimates and did the work was not the head of a depart- 

 ment, and he ought to be. The work was done by a 

 Minister who was controlled by another, and the latter 

 was scarcely seen by the public. He did not see why we 

 should continue that Japanese mode of managing affairs." 



It is satisfactory to see that the House of Commons is 

 gradually getting into a better position to discuss such 

 questions as these, but we have felt that the main point 

 is, that the head of the Government does not yet consider 

 that the question of education is one of an importance 

 sufficient to be discussed side by side with what in his 

 opinion is the much larger questions of Parliamentary 

 procedure, and the saving of so many pounds, shillings, 

 and pence. It is true a Select Committee has been agreed 

 to, but we fear that after Mr. Gladstone's speech very 

 little will come of it, as has happened before. 



It would be ungraceful not to state that the debate 

 brought out in the clearest possible way the valuable 

 services rendered under great difficulties by the present 

 Vice-President of the Committee of the Council on Edu- 

 cation, Mr. Mundella. 



But the result remains that we are not to have a 

 Minister of Education. There is agricultural business, 

 including the Rinderpest, and other matters, and these 

 are larger questions than that of national education ! 

 Therefore national education must wait. As we said 

 before, we are a longsuffering and patient people. 

 There is, however, little doubt that in some political 

 programme of the future this question will find a place ; 

 equal electoral districts and the payment of members are 

 not the only things to be cared for. F.R.S. 



EVOLUTION AND CREATION 

 A Few Words on Evolution and Creation ; A T/iesis 

 maintaining that the World was not made of Matter 

 by the Development of one Potency, but by that of In- 

 numerable Specific Powers. By Henry S. Boase, M.D.> 

 F.R.S. , &c. (London : John Leng and Co., 1882.) 

 Notes on Evolution and Christianity. By J. F. Yorke. 

 (London : Kcgan Paul, Trench, and Co., 1882 ) 



THE first of these works is, as may be inferred from. 

 its title, a most curious production. The chief aim 

 of its author is that of sustaining the Biblical Cosmology 

 against what he regards as the fallacious inroads of the 

 theory of Evolution. In carrying out his design he 



