September 25, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



393 



tion of any consequence which is without 

 a charter, and which has not His Majesty 

 the King as patron. 



THE FIRST WORK OP SUCH .\JSr ORGANIZATION. 



I suppose it is my duty after I have sug- 

 gested the need of organization to tell you 

 my personal opinion as to the matters where 

 we suffer most in consequence of our lack 

 of organization at the present time. 



Our position as a nation, our success as 

 merchants, are in peril chiefly— dealing 

 with preventable causes— because of our 

 lack of completely efficient universities, 

 and our neglect of research. This research 

 has a double end. A professor who is not 

 learning can not teach properly or arouse 

 enthusiasm in his students ; while a student 

 of any thing who is unfamiliar with re- 

 search methods, and without that training 

 which research bi'ings, will not be in the 

 best position to apply his knowledge in 

 after life. Prom neglect of research comes 

 imperfect education and a small output of 

 new applications and new knowledge to re- 

 invigorate our industries. From imperfect 

 education comes the unconcern touching 

 scientific matters, and the too frequent 

 absence of the scientific spirit, in the nation 

 generally from the court to the parish 

 council. 



I propose to deal as briefly as I can with 

 each of these points. 



UNIVERSITIES. 



I have shown that so far as our industries 

 are concerned, the cause of our failure has 

 been run to earth; it is fully recognized 

 that it arises from the insufficiency of our 

 universities both in numbers and efficiency, 

 so that not only our captains of industry, 

 but those employed on the nation's work 

 generally, do not secure a training similar 

 to that afl'orded by other nations. No addi- 

 tional endowment of primary, secondary 



or technical instruction will mend matters. 

 This is not merely the opinion of men of 

 science ; our great towns know it, our Min- 

 isters 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 

 who, in the future, will carry high the flag 

 of this country in commercial, scientific 

 and economic competition with other na- 

 tions. At the present moment, I believe 

 there is nothing more important than to 

 supply the deficiences 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 

 university 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 ofl: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 edu- 

 cate. 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 



