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Xe REPORT— 1873. 



time ago in consequence of representations made to Government by the 

 Britishi Association on this subject, and it is understood that their instruc- 

 tions are so framed as to direct their particular attention to the manner in 

 which Government may best distribute educational grants. The Commission 

 is moreover composed of most distinguished men, and we have every reason 

 to anticipate from their labours a result worthy of the nation and of the 

 momentous occasion. 



In speaking of public educational establishments, I refer to those which 

 by their constitution are devoted to the advancement of learning without 

 pecuniary profit to their respective governing bodies. The annual expen- 

 diture requisite for keeinng up a national system of popular education will 

 necessarily be considerable from the first, and will become greater from year 

 to year ; but once Englishmen are fully alive to the paramount importance 

 of the object, and see that its attainment is within their reach, we may be 

 sure that its expense will be no impediment. England would not deserve 

 to reap the glorious fruits of the harvest of knowledge if she grudged the 

 necessary outlay for seed and tillage, were it even ten times greater than it 

 will be. It is no use attempting to establish a national system on any other 

 than a truly national basis. Private and corporate funds inevitably get 

 diverted from popular use, after a few generations, to the use of the influ- 

 ential and rich. A. national system must steadily keep in view the improve- 

 ment of the poor, and distribute public funds each year in the manner best 

 calculated to give to the youths of the poorest classes full opportunities of 

 improvement proportional to their capacities, so that they may qualify them- 

 selves for the utmost usefulness to their country of which they are capable, 

 " The best possible security for the proper administration of the system will 

 be found in the full and speedy publicity of all the particulars of its 

 working. 



It has been frequently remarked that a great proportion of English in- 

 vestigators are men of independent means, who not only seek no advance- 

 ment as a reward of their labours, but often sacrifice those opportunities of 

 improving their worldly position which then- abilities and influence open up 

 to them, for the sake of quietly advancing human knowledge. Eich and 

 powerful men have very great temptations to turn away from science, so 

 that those who devote their time and money to its service prove to us how 

 true and pure a love of science exists in this country, and how Englishmen 

 will cultivate it when it is in their power to do so. 



Now and then a youth from the poorer classes is enabled by fortunate 

 accidents and the aid of a friendly hand to climb to a position of scientific 

 activity, and to give us, as Faraday did, a sample of the intellectual powers 

 which lie fallow in the great mass of the people. 



Now, the practical conclusion to which I want to lead you is, that it rests 

 with you, who represent the national desire for the advancement of science, 

 to take the only measures which can now be taken towards the establish- 

 ment of a system of education worthy of this country and adapted to the 

 requirements of science. In the present stage of the business the first thing 

 to be done is to arouse public attention by all practicable means to the im- 

 portance of the want, and to get people gradually to agree to some definite 

 and practicable plan of action. You will, I think, find that the best way 

 to promote such agreement is to make people consider the natural forces 

 which have to be systematized by legislation, with a view of enabling them 

 to work freely for the desired purpose. When the conditions essential to 

 any national system come to be duly appreciated by those interested in the 



