NATURE 



THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 1887 



THE NECESSITY FOR A MINISTER OF 

 EDUCATION 

 T F we are justified in judging of the progress of right 

 ideas on the importance to the nation of science and 

 scientific instruction by the outcomes of one week, then 

 certainly we may congratulate ourselves upon the fact 

 that at last the views which we have for the last eighteen 

 years, in season and out of season, been putting forward 

 are beginning to attract public attention. 



There can be no doubt that the general interest is now 

 thoroughly aroused on this matter. In spite of the abso- 

 hite block of anything like a debate upon education in 

 Parliament, scientific and political leaders say their say 

 elsewhere, and the manner in which these utterances are 

 referred to and enlarged upon in the leading journals is a 

 sure indication that the public interest is known to be 

 growing, and that it is now generally acknowledged that 

 our welfare as a nation depends upon a proper considera- 

 tion of educational questions. 



The first utterance we have to refer to is the admirable 

 speech delivered by Lord Hartington on the night our 

 last number went to press. Lord Hartington had con- 

 sented to give away the prizes and make an address at 

 the Polytechnic Young Men's Christian Institute, an 

 organisation which now numbers nearly 7000 students, 

 for the existence and endowment of which England 

 is indebted to the munificence and clear-sightedness of 

 one individual, Mr. Quintin Hogg. 



It was not to be wondered at that Lord Hartington, 

 with such an unaccustomed task before him, should have 

 referred, in the course of his speech, to Prof. Huxley's 

 recent address, in which the fact was emphasised that 

 if peace has her victories, there must be some who are 

 vanquished ; that there is a death to the conquered in 

 peace as in war, the victims of peace being starved as a 

 result of continual depression of trade. 



The interest of Lord Hartingtons speech was that the 

 question which Prof. Huxley had approached from the 

 Darwinian point of view — the survival of the fittest, the 

 destruction of the unfittest — was to him a question of 

 possible contemporary politics which he had to con- 

 sider, and the consideration he gave to it led him to 

 emphasi'se Prof. Huxley's view of the situation. It is 

 clear moreover that the opinion given was not one hastily 

 formed, for the former paramount position of this countrv 

 when she had a monopoly of iron, and coal, and other 

 material resources, and when there was no science to 

 speak of anywhere, either here or abroad, had been fully 

 taken into consideration. We quote from the speech : — 



" No doubt we should still have our material resources, 

 our iron and steel, and the muscular energy of what 

 would then be our superabundant population ; but instead 

 of being what we are now, wc should be hewers of wood 

 and drawers of water for the world. If ever our 

 raw materials could be manufactured for the uses and 

 wants of the world better in other countries than in our 

 own, we should become the slaves and servants of the 

 rest of the world, instead of its leaders and masters, as 

 we have been hitherto." 



Vol. XXXV.— No. 908 



Now, if a politician of Lord Hartington's eminence 

 tells us that this may happen as a result of our being 

 beaten in a campaign of peace, it is proper to con- 

 sider whether we could be very much worse off in the 

 event of a disastrous war. Certainly, to fend off this 

 result by war, we, as a nation, would not hesitate to 

 double the national debt. 



Lord Hartington next went on to show that war also 

 now depends upon science. 



" There are some who go so far as to deprecate any 

 large expenditure whatever, even when necessary for 

 the efficiency of our services. These people point 

 to the success which we have attained in former times 

 when almost alone we have contended successfully against 

 a whole continent ; they point to the undiminished strength 

 and courage of our soldiers and sailors, to the vast re- 

 sources — industrial, manufacturing, and financial — of the 

 country ; and they tell us that if we only husband these 

 resources they will pull us through in future emergencies 

 as they have done in the past. But I would say that 

 all these arguments are utterly vain and futile unless we 

 can prove that the conditions under which we should have 

 to fight are entirely similar to those under which we have 

 fought in the past. If, on the other hand, it can be proved 

 that wars are no longer decided by personal courage or 

 endurance, but by the possession of scientific knowledge 

 and all the most approved and perfected appliances, then 

 we cannot afford to disregard the teaching and the 

 experience of the rest of the world, and cannot afford to 

 allow ourselves to be behindhand in the possession of the 

 scientific knowledge and appliances that are demanded." 



Lord Hartington then insists upon the importance of 

 science both in peace and war. 



" If undoubted success can only be gained by the 

 possession of scientific knowledge and the application of 

 the most scientific instruction to the masses of our 

 people, then it follows that we shall fall behind in this 

 industrial competition and warfare if we do not possess 

 ourselves of these necessities." 



He holds that the army of peace must be aided by the 

 State as well as the other. We no longer think of keep- 

 ing out an invasion by train-bands, and volunteers, and our 

 merchant fleet. For peace purposes also, then, local effort 

 alone will not do all that is necessary. We have found 

 this out already, and we have the Science and Art De- 

 partment as well as the Admiralty and War Office. Lord 

 Hartington holds that the Science and Art Department 

 must be strengthened so far as technical instruction is 

 concerned. 



We see, then, that at last we have one political leader who 

 views science and scientific instruction in the true light, 

 and has the courage of his opinion. Science is to be 

 aided on precisely the same grounds that we aid the 

 army and the navy. It is no longer a question of 

 merely paying for Sweetness and Light, or of giving a poor 

 dog a bone. 



It was not to be expected that Prof. Huxley, who has 

 so unceasingly done all in the power of a single indi- 

 vidual to place the right views on this matter before the 

 public, would rest content with the note of warning to 

 which Lord Hartington, as we have seen, has so forcibly 

 drawn attention. 



Under the title of "The Organisation of Industrial 



