August 5, 1880] 



NATURE 



313 



paupers and the free education of the children of the 

 working classes will not hold water. In the one case we 

 are simply keeping from starvation people whose im- 

 providence or misfortune have made them a dead burden 

 on their fellows ; in the other case we are feeding the 

 minds of those who one day will have to bear the brunt 

 of the work of the nation. The better these future 

 workers are educated, the more intelligently and the more 

 effectively are they likely to do their work, and the less 

 likely are they to become inmates of our workhouses and 

 prisons. As Serjeant Simon testified, even already is 

 there a marked decrease of embryo criminals in our streets. 

 The conclusion come to by Mr. Mundella and those who,like 

 him, have the interests of education at heart, is not that we 

 have gone too far, but that we have not gone far enough ; not 

 that we have reached finality, but that we have only made 

 a good beginning. The figures he adduced to prove the 

 success of the existing Education Act were practically 

 admitted to be irrefutable ; and we only trust the 

 progress in the next ten years will be at an equal ratio 

 to that achieved during the past decade. " Many of us," 

 he truly said, "would pass away without seeing the full 

 effect of the work we are doing." As to the propriety of 

 encouraging the retention of exceptionally clever boys in 

 elementary schools beyond the regulation age, the figures 

 showed that it would be cruel and unjust to forbid this. 

 Until we have a State system of secondary education in 

 England similar to that about to be sanctioned in Scotland, 

 until an equally decisive step is taken with regard to 

 educational endowments in the one country' as in the 

 other, the nation would be doing a gross injustice to 

 force exceptionally clever boys to leave school just when 

 their intellects were beginning to shoot into full vigour. 

 Mr. Mundella showed by his figures that Scotland is still 

 ahead of England in the matter of education ; that extra 

 or special subjects are more widely sought after and with 

 greater success, and that a larger percentage of children 

 in elementary schools proceed to secondary education. 

 But it should be remembered that this is the result of 

 many generations of universal education, and that in 

 Scotland it has long been considered as great a disgrace 

 to be uneducated as in England it is considered to be 

 immoral. There among the great majority of the working 

 classes compulsory education was scarcely needed, and 

 this will no doubt be the case in England in the course of 

 a century or so, when education will have become as 

 great a necessity as decent clothing. Again during the 

 debate was it shown by those who have the best means 

 of knowing that where science is properly taught there 

 the children are as a rule more intelligent and bright, 

 and better up in the ordinary subjects than in schools 

 where science is neglected. Sir John Lubbock gave a 

 remarkable instance of the favour with which properly 

 conducted science-teaching is received by the children 

 themselves : — 



" He had lately," he said, "visited some of the Lambeth 

 schools, and in one of the last he asked the children which 

 subject they themselves preferred. Out of 229 children 

 in the upper standards, 2 liked grammar best, ii geo- 

 graphy, 31 arithmetic, 38 history, and 147 elementary 

 science. He did not quote this from any wish to exclude 

 the other subjects, but because it seemed conclusive 

 evidence against the proposal to omit elementary science. 



He knew that many hon. members, when they thought of 

 children learning these extra subjects, pictured to them- 

 selves anxious and weary children poring over a difficult 

 and distasteful task. He wished they would go and see 

 the reality — the bright, happy, intelligent faces of the 

 children, and their delight as they found themselves able 

 to answer the questions rapidly asked them by the 

 master." 



We have no intention of repeatmg the arguments we 

 have so often adduced in favour of the teaching of at 

 least such elementary science in our national schools as 

 will be of practical use in after life and help to render the 

 hard lives of the working classes brighter and nobler, and 

 thus elevate the whole nation. The debate on Monday 

 confirms all that has been adduced in favour of such 

 education, and is the best possible reply to the attack of 

 Lord Norton in the Upper House, an attack which the 

 debate showed to be an anachronism. The whole tone 

 of Mr. Mundella's address must convince all but the most 

 prejudiced that the education of the country could not be 

 in better or safer hands, and that he is not in the least 

 likely to take any step that could be cor:sidered rash. 



Quite in keeping with the tone of his Education address 

 were his remarks in connection with the vote for the 

 Science and Art Department. With regard to the vote 

 of 4,000/. for scientific research, Mr. Mundella said that 

 it was expended under the advice of the Committee and 

 members of the Royal Society, and that of the presidents 

 of the various other scientific bodies. He thought the 

 country could well afford to spend 5,000/. on the matters 

 that had been alluded to. " As it was w-e did not spend 

 too much on science and art." This is a remarkable 

 admission to make by our Minister of Science, for such 

 the Vice-President of the Council is in reality if not in 

 name. We do not wish a penny to be deducted from the 

 grant for elementary education, which we hope to see 

 gradually increased ; indeed we would strongly urge Mr. 

 Mundella to devote his energies, so long as he has oppor- 

 tunity, to perfecting the teaching of science in our 

 elementary schools. When once a proper system is 

 fairly established, there will be no danger of retrogression 

 — rapid progress will be certain. Not only so, but we are 

 sure that the nation will be convinced that at the other 

 end of the scale the neglect to encourage by national 

 funds scientific research is quite as disastrous to the 

 highest welfare of the country as the neglect of elementary 

 education. In Germany and France the national neces- 

 sity of both is practically recognised, and they are both 

 amply provided for. If Mr. MundeUa is of opinion that 

 we do not spend too much on science, that can only mean 

 that the nation must suffer for this parsimony. It was 

 admittedly as an experiment that the 4,000/. was added 

 to the 1,000/., which, by the by, but for the want of faith 

 of the scientific nabobs of the time, might have been 

 10,000/., and that many years ago. Over and over again 

 have we pointed out the benefit which the nation w^ould 

 reap from research when adequately encouraged, and 

 that we can never hope to hold our own in this matter 

 with foreign countries under existing conditions, under 

 which some of our best men are compelled to waste in 

 exceptional powers in teaching for the sake of bread 

 and butter ; while some among the "professors " whom in 

 the view of some we were exclusively to look for research 



