IxXXvi REPORT — 1873. 



suppose tliat such knowledge need not go beyond tlie elementary truths of 

 science. In every branch of manufacture improvements are made from time 

 to time, by the introduction of new or modified processes which had been 

 discovered by means of investigations as arduous as those conducted for 

 purely scientific purposes, and involving as great powers and accomplish- 

 ments on the part of those who conducted them. 



Any manufacturer of the present day who does not make efficient arrange- 

 ments for gradually perfecting and improving his processes ought to make 

 at once enough money to retire ; for so many are moving onwards in this 

 and other countries, that he would soon be left behind. 



It would be well worth while to establish such a system of scientific educa- 

 tion for the sake of training men to the habits of mind which are required 

 for the improvement of the manufacturing arts ; and I have no doubt that 

 the espensc of Avorking tlie system would be repaid a hundred times over by 

 the increase of wealth of the community ; but I only mention this as a 

 secondarjr advantage of national education. 



A system of the kind could not expand to due dimensions, nor could it, 

 once fully established, maintain itself in full activity, without intelligent 

 sj'mpathy from the community ; and accordingly its more active-minded 

 members must be taught some good examples of the processes and results of 

 scientific inquiry, before they can be expected to take much interest in the 

 results achieved by inquirei's, and to do their share of the work requisite for tlie 

 success of the system, I need hardly remind you that there are plenty of other 

 strong reasons why some such knowledge of the truths of nature, and of the 

 means by which they are found out, should be difi^used as widely as possible 

 throughout the community. 



You perceive that in such educational system each teacher must trust to 

 his own exertions for success and advancement ; and he wiU do so if he is 

 sure that his results will be kno^m and compared impartially with those 

 attained by others. Each governing body must duly maintain the efficiency 

 of their school or college, if its siipport depend in some degree on the evi- 

 dences of that efficiency ; and they will try to improve their school if they 

 know that every imx^rovement will be seen and duly appreciated. 



The keystone of the whole structure is the action of the State in distri- 

 buting funds carefully among schools and colleges proportionally to the evi- 

 dence of their doing good work, which could not be continued without 

 such aid. 



I am inclined to think that the State ought, as far as possible, to confine 

 its educational grants to the purpose of maintaining and continuing good 

 work which is actually being done, and rarely if ever to initiate educational 

 experiments : first, because it is desirable to encourage private exertions 

 and donations for the establishment of schools and colleges upon new 

 systems, or in new localities, by giving the public fuU assui'ance that if any 

 new institution establishes its right to existence, by doing good work for a 

 while, it will not be allowed to die off for want of support ; and, secondly, 

 because the judicial impartiality required in the administration of public 

 funds, on the basis of results of work, is hardly compatible with an advocacy 

 of any particular means of attaining such results. 



On the other hand, experience has shown that special endowments, which tie 

 up funds in perpetuity for a definite pm'pose, commonly fail to attain their 

 object under the altered circumstances which spring up in later generations, 

 and not unfrequently detract from the efficiency of the institutions to which 

 they are attached, by being used for objects other than those which it is their 

 proper function to promote. 



