TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION L. 867 



The evening instruction was then largely attended by adults. That this 

 was the case may be judged by the fact that the average age of candidates who 

 obtained successes in advanced chemistry was about twenty-five and in elementary 

 chemistry about twenty-one. I have alluded to the apathy displayed by employers 

 and by the artisans in the early days of the Department of Science and Art. The 

 causes which dispelled it in both employers and employed, in regard to science 

 instruction, will be found in the following extract from a report by the Depart- 

 ment of Science and Art : — 



'The Paris Exhibition (1867) caused the work of this country to be brought 

 into close comparison with that of the rest of the Continent, and in many points 

 both of manufacture and of skilled labour it was found England did not stand in 

 such a good position as she had done a few years back. Dr. Play fair, in a letter 

 to the Times, drew attention to this, attributing much if not all the evil to the 

 deficiency of our technical education among the artisan class. The substance of 

 this letter was taken up by many persons of influence during the autumnal recess, 

 and it led to a sort of educational panic, the cry for technical education becoming 

 quite the absorbing topic among all circles and forming a considerable portion of 

 the contents of all periodicals. Meetings were convened and addresses delivered 

 all over the country, and the question was so much ventilated that important 

 changes were anticipated in the educational arrangements of the country during 

 the coming session of Parliament, which unfortunately were put off on account of 

 the debates on the Reform Bill of 1868. 



' The agitation necessarily brought forward the work of the Science Division 

 of the Science and Art Department, and it is not a little remarkable how completely 

 the system which had been growing up since 1860 seemed to meet all the require- 

 ments of the case, and at the same time how few persons had any idea of its 

 provisions in spite of all that had been done to spread a knowledge of the scheme. 



' There can be no doubt, however, but that this six years' work had silently, 

 though materially, effected a change in the general tone of feeling on the subject 

 of scientific education, and had been the means of preparing the country for the 

 1867 agitation. The different feeling among the working-classes on the subject 

 is forcibly shown in the Annual Keport of the Science and Art Department. 

 From this it appears that in 1860 a pupil in one of the science classes in Man- 

 chester, a town usually looked upon as in advance of others, could hardly continue 

 his attendance at the class owing to the taunts of, and ill-treatment by, his 

 companions. Nevertheless, in the autumn of this year, 1867, hardly enough could 

 be said or done to satisfy the desire for science classes being formed for those 

 very persons who, but six years before, had considered attendance at a Govern- 

 ment science school as almost against the rules of their trade.' 



Such was the account of 1867 given by Mr. G. C. T. Bartley (now Sir G. Bart- 

 ley, M.P.). The plan adopted by the Science and Art Department for encouraging 

 instruction in science was perhaps the best that could be devised at the time, 

 though we now know that it was capable of improvement. It may be mentioned 

 that an improvement in it was made the next year by the introduction of a very 

 large system of scholarships, scholarships which have enabled the possessors in 

 some instances to continue their studies at universities, and several distinguished 

 men owe their positions to this aid. It was in this same year that Mr. Whitworth 

 established his scholarships, as before described. 



I have endeavoured to give a brief risumO of what was done during the first 

 fifteen years of the existence of the Science and Art Department, and it con- 

 tinued to expand its operations after 1868 on the same lines for another ten years. 

 In 1876 your President became connected with the Department as a Science 

 Inspector. I am sure the Section will forgive me if I am somewhat personal for 

 a few moments. During the previous eight years I had had the honour of being 

 a teacher of some branches of physical science at the School of Military Engineer- 

 ing, and my own training was such that I had formed a very definite opinion as 

 to how science instruction should be imparted, both to those who h&d a good 

 general education and also to those who had not. The method was the 

 same in both cases : it should be taught practically. I may say that I had not 



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