PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 607 
The importance of primary education is now well recognised. Rich and 
aristocratic folk know that they are now in the hands of the common people in 
a democratic country, and it is important to see that the common people shall 
be made fit to rule and shall have a real sense of fairness and reasonableness. 
Above all, if they are to be good citizens we must cultivate their common sense. 
I think that in the schemes and the administration of primary education by 
the Boards of England and Scotland it is in a good way; but there is one great 
curse upon it, and the enormous sums of money spent upon it are greatly wasted. 
The local authorities give to every teacher far too much to do, and they give him 
only half his proper wages. In a few years the Government of our democratic 
country will be in the hands of the boys now at school. That they should be good 
citizens full of common sense is more important than any other thing. If they 
are without fondness for books, and if they cannot reason, their votes will be at 
the command of fraudulent or foolish, or perhaps only selfish or self-deceiving 
speakers. Our empire was ruled by George the Third, and by God’s grace we 
only lost America and piled up the National Debt; but think of an empire 
ruled by millions of Georges! Teaching the young requires great wisdom and 
sympathy, and we entrust it to people paid half wages, the ‘otherwise unem- 
ployed.’ In the secondary schools also we find this penny wise pound foolish 
policy, and it is particularly evil in the great technical schools. A city is proud 
of its magnificent college of science, first because of its architecture; secondly 
because of its equipment in apparatus, perhaps in steam and gas engines and 
other expensive machinery. And the man in charge of the most important 
department of that college receives perhaps 2507. a year. He ought to get at 
least 600/. That is the market price of a fit man, and without a fit man the 
whole money and the time of students are being wasted; the thing is really a 
fraud, a whited sepulchre, and of course the Principal is always a classical 
non-scientific man. Photographs of the building and its laboratories are 
very fine to look at in guide-books of the city, and the managers of the college 
get public thanks for their services. I know nearly all the technical and science 
colleges of Great Britain, and I hardly ever see any of their complacent managers, 
members of their governing bodies, without wishing that I had some of the 
powers of the familiars of the old Spanish Inquisition. What right have they 
to undertake duties which require a knowledge of Natural Science? 
The latest proposal of our callous copiers of the Germans is to make 
attendance at evening classes compulsory up to the age of seventeen. At present 
working boys attend evening classes voluntarily, although in many cases they 
are too tired to learn much. Yet many of them do learn. These boys are 
almost martyrs. They sacrifice so many of their poor pleasures, and indeed 
duties, that they certainly deserve success in life. But it is not fair to impose 
these sacrifices upon boys who are, as apprentices, learning the principles under- 
lying their trade, and who are paid only small wages on the understanding that 
their masters teach these principles. In 1889 I introduced a Bill into the 
Kensington Parliament compelling employers to provide such instruction during 
the working hours. Reforms of all kinds proceed with exasperating slowness, 
but already many employers are carrying out this idea. 
In some things we reformers have made way. It is now recognised almost 
everywhere that examinations ought to be conducted mainly by the teachers of a 
student. I have often put the matter in this way: Huxley used to teach about 
forty students in biology; we cannot imagine better teaching. But if those 
students had only wanted to pass the examination of London University it is 
uite certain that they would have done very much better by attending the 
class of a cheap crammer. A University consisting of two, three, or more 
federated colleges is very little better than a mere outside examining body, and 
this is what London University has always been. I am glad that a change 
towards something better is now about to take place. A number of separate 
Universities would be better, but in two years or less, probably, the colleges of 
London will conduct their own intermediate and degree examinations. One 
result will be that when a man gets his degree he will not shut up his books 
for ever. 
I would, however, point out that old London University, which was a mere 
examining body, served an exceedingly important purpose. This statement may 
