ADDRESS. 13 



technical instruction will mend matters. This is not merely the opinion 

 of men of science ; our great towns know it, our Ministers know it. 

 It is sufficient for me to quote Mr. Chamberlain : — 



' It is not everyone who can, by any possibility, go forward into the. 

 higher spheres of education ; but it is from those who do that we have to 

 look for the men Avho in the future will carry high the flag of this countrj' 

 in commercial, scientific, and economic competition with other nations. 

 At the present moment I believe there is nothing more important than to 

 supply the deficiencies which separate us from those with whom we are in 

 the closest competition. In Germany, in America, in our own colony of 

 Canada, and in Australia, the higher education of the people has more 

 support from the Government, is carried further, than it is here in the Old 

 Country ; and the result is that in every profession, in every industry, 

 you find the places taken by men and by women who have had a Univer- 

 sity education. And I would like to see the time in this country when 

 no man should have a chance for any occupation of the better kind, either 

 in our factories, our workshops, or our counting-houses, who could not 

 show proof that in the course of his University career he had deserved the 

 position that was ofi'ered to him. What is it that makes a country ? Of 

 course you may say, and you would be quite right, " The general qualities 

 of the people, their resolution, their intelligence, their pertinacity, and 

 many other good qualities." Yes ; but that is not all, and it is not the 

 main creative feature of a great nation. The greatness of a nation is 

 made by its greatest men. It is those we want to educate. It is to 

 those who are able to go, it may be, from the very lowest steps in the 

 ladder, to men who are able to devote their time to higher education, that 

 v/e have to look to continue the position which we now occupy as at all 

 events one of the greatest nations on the face of the earth. And, 

 feeling as I do on these subjects, you will not be surprised if I say 

 that I think the time is coming when Governments will give more 

 attention to this matter, and perhaps find a little more money to forward 

 its interests.' ' 



Our conception of a Univei'sity has changed. University education is 

 no longer regarded as the luxury of the rich, which concerns only those 

 who can afibrd to pay heavily for it. The Prime Minister in a recent 

 speech, while properly pointing out that the collective efiect of our public 

 and secondary schools upon British character cannot be overrated, frankly 

 acknowledged that the boys of seventeen or eighteen who have to be 

 educated in them ' do not care a farthing about the world they live in 

 except in so far as it concerns the cricket-field or the football-field or the 

 river.' On this ground they are not to be taught science ; and hence, 

 when they proceed to the University, their curriculum is limited to subjects 

 which were better taught before the modern world existed, or even Galileo 



• Times, November 6, 1902. 



