256 
NATURE 
[OcrToBER 23, 1913 
alone advance is possible. The curse of uniformity, 
perhaps the greatest curse of all, is a necessary con- 
sequence of over-centralised control. 
I have trespassed so greatly upon your forbearance 
in discussing matters connected with primary educa- 
tion that I must give but brief expression to any views 
concerning the secondary and higher branches. 
As I have previously indicated, State aid should be 
restricted to those who are able to profit thereby. The 
25 per cent. free-place regulation has, it is generally 
admitted, brought into the secondary schools many 
really able students. On the other hand, there is no 
doubt that a certain proportion thereof would be more 
profitably employed in serving their apprenticeship in 
the business in which they are to earn their bread- 
and-butter. It is, of course, understood that those 
whose parents can afford to pay for the further educa- 
tion of their children and who are ready to do so are 
not here referred to, but, careful selection assured, 
generous assistance to those in need of help suggests 
itself as the best policy. 
Another subject for consideration is the dispropor- 
tion between the assistance given by the State to the 
training of primary and of secondary teachers. I 
understand that to the latter object, so far as England 
and Wales are concerned, the not impressive sum of 
5oool. is delegated. After making due allowance for 
the difference in numbers under the respective head- 
ings, it is difficult to understand how it is necessary 
to expend a sum approaching 700,0o0ol.' on the train- 
ing of primary teachers, and only 1/140th of that 
amount on training those who are to guide our most 
able students in the pursuit of knowledge. 
Had time permitted I should have liked to dwell 
on the evil effects of what I may term our conspiracy 
of silence regarding sexual instruction. If the pro- 
verbial visitor from Mars was engaged in a tour of 
inspection in our country, I think nothing would 
strike him as more extraordinary than that a subject 
which so closely concerns the progress of the race 
and the welfare of the individual should be entirely 
ignored in our system of education. By our action (or 
rather want of action) we tacitly admit that knowledge 
is harmful, and that we deliberately prefer such know- 
ledge, which must necessarily be attained in one way 
or another, to arrive by subterranean channels and by 
agencies which will present facts of vital importance 
in their worst possible aspect. 
We cannot be said to be really educating our children 
so long as we withhold from them all guidance in one 
of the most difficult problems which will be presented 
to them in later life, and when one reflects on the 
misery and wreckage consequent on our silence, it 
is difficult to speak with due moderation. I will there- 
fore content myself with suggesting to those interested 
in this matter a study of the procedure adopted in the 
schools of Finland, in which systematic instruction is 
given by carefully selected teachers; it is stated with 
the happiest results. 
I have referred, when speaking of primary educa- 
tion, to the curse of uniformity as one of the greatest 
4 Note I.—Grants for 1911-12 :— 
1. Grants from Board of Education :— 
(a) Maintenance grants to training colleges and 
hostels ... sa - £470,910 
(4) Building grants ... 93,406 
5 F £564,496 
2. Grants from L.E.A.'s :— 
(a) To training colleges 21,682 
(6) ‘Yo hostels Pe ey ee ak 787 
(c) Scholarships (not possible to ascertain total) ? 
22,469 
Total £526,875 
Note II.—To the above must be added the grants in aid of bursars and 
pupil teachers, which amount to £re1, 802. 
NO. 2295, VOL. 92] 
I 
; evils of our educational system. 
our provincial universities have escaped, although not 
entirely unscathed, from the cramping effects of de-— 
partmental control. The situdtion, however, is not 
free from danger. It is necessary that these universi- 
ties should be State-aided. It is also evident that, if 
we are to hold our own in competition with other 
nations, State assistance must be increased. There is 
danger, therefore, that the blight of uniformity and 
official control may descend upon them. 
is not immediate, but it is nevertheless real. To some 
of us an ominous sign was the transference of the 
dispensation of the university grants from the Treasury 
to the Board of Education. It is true that we have 
evidence that no desire for undue control is manifest 
at the present time, and it is an encouraging sign 
that the Minister of Education, in a recent dispute 
connected with one of our youngest universities, 
intimated that he considered it beyond his province to 
interfere with its proceedings. 
In this connection Mr. Austen Chamberlain has 
given me permission to read the following extract 
from a letter which I recently received from him :— 
‘“I am in complete agreement with you as to the 
importance of preserving to the universities the 
greatest possible freedom and liberty. For this very 
reason I was at first strongly opposed to transferring 
the administration of the Treasury grants to the 
Board of Education; but I found that, for one reason 
and another, a considerable portion of their receipts 
were already received from the latter Board, and it 
was represented to me that this involved unnecessar 
complication and overlapping, and that the universi- 
ties were likely to receive more generous considera- 
tion if the whole of the grants were placed in the 
hands of a single authority. At the same time I was 
assured that the Board of Education had no desire 
to claim a control different in character or extent 
from that which the Treasury had previously exer- 
cised. On receiving these assurances I withdrew my 
opposition to the transfer and sent word to the Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer that I no longer held him 
bound by an undertaking which he had given me in 
the House of Commons that the transfer should 
not take place.” 
Another encouraging sign is the personnel of the 
Advisory Committee which the Board has established 
to guide it in matters connected with the University 
grants. We cannot, however, be certain that su 
wise views will always prevail, and I have already 
dwelt on the inevitable tendency of any department 
of State to influence and control the policy of all 
bodies receiving assistance from the Treasury. 
The freedom of the universities is one of the highest 
educational assets of this country, and it is to the 
advantage of the community as a whole that each 
university should be left unfettered to develop its 
energies, promote research and advance learning in 
the manner best suited to its environment. It is con- 
ceivable that it might be better for our universities to 
struggle on in comparative poverty rather than yield 
to the temptation of affluence coupled with State 
control. 
The State is at present devoting some 180,000l. to 
the support of university education in England and 
Wales. If, in addition, we include such institutions 
as the National Physical Laboratory and the grant 
of 4oool. to the Royal Society, we may say that this 
country is expending about 200,000]. per annum on 
the highest education and the promotion of research, 
a total but slightly exceeding that devoted to one of 
the universities of Germany. Comment 
needless. 
When we reflect on the magnitude of the results 
So far, at all events, | 
The danger _ 
appears 
