October 8, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



315 



who predicted that from Pestalozzi's institute 

 would come the regeneration of the German na- 

 tion. Fichte's own Reden an die deutsche nation 

 is an educational classic, and his influence in 

 Germany is perceptible to this day. What Pro- 

 fessor Hallberg has to say is far too brief to be 

 exhaustive, but it is very instructive so far as it 

 goes. 



7!ff^ MODERN MUSEUM. 



The Prince of WaleS; in a letter to the lord- 

 mayor of London under date of Sept. 13, pro- 

 poses the formation of a permanent museum, to 

 represent the arts, the manufactures, and the com- 

 merce of the queen's colonial and Indian empire, 

 as a fitting memorial of the queen's jubUee. In 

 the London Spectator of Sept. 25 is an article 

 upon the Prince of Wales's idea, which brings out 

 so prominently the advantages of the modern 

 museum, that we quote from it extensively below. 

 The Spectator refers to the difficulty of treating 

 as a whole the English colonies and the English 

 dependencies ; but, as diversity is so singular a 

 character of the empire, it ought certainly to be 

 reflected in any such institute. The Prince of 

 Wales points out especially the advantage of such 

 an institution in stimulating and efficiently direct- 

 ing emigration by giving to those frequenting it 

 a more correct picture of the lands to which they 

 might have thought of going. Again, it is almost 

 needless to point out the commercial advantages 

 of a permanent museum of the products of the 

 empire, for it would serve the purpose of adver- 

 tising, which is an essential of mercantile prog- 

 ress ; but, as said, the prince is probably right in 

 putting emigration first of aU in his list of bene- 

 fits. 



Emigration, wisely undertaken, is an unmixed 

 blessing to the working-classes. It gives the man 

 who emigrates the opportunity which no man can 

 ever be quite content till he has had, whether he 

 fails or not, — the opportunity of making a for- 

 tune, and of emerging from the dulness of the 

 ranks of Hfe. It gives to the workman who stays 

 that relief from the pressure of competition which 

 he so much needs. With these results before 

 them, people of the upper class constantly wonder 

 how it is the workiugmen are not more eager 

 about emigration, and in general can only be in- 

 duced to adopt it as a final resort from misery. 

 They argue, "In our rank of life, the younger 

 sons all emigrate," and caU to mind the not un- 

 f requent cases where, out of a family of six, four 

 will have left England. " We do it easily enough," 

 they say; "why, then, won't the worktngmen, 

 where the pressure is so much greater and the in- 



ducements comparatively so much higher ? " The 

 answer, of course, rests in the fact that the one 

 class of men know geography, and the other do 

 not. The young man who determines to go to 

 Florida knows where Florida is, and, before he 

 chooses it, has been able to picture to himself, by 

 the information he has the means of getting easily, 

 the kind of Kf e he will have to lead. The notion 

 has no nameless, shapeless, unknowable terrors 

 for him. He has seen plenty of Americans, and 

 knows that they are like other men, and that, but 

 for the banishment from England, he will be 

 happy enough. So, too, with the woman of edu- 

 cation who accompanies her husband when he 

 emigrates : she has not that physical dread of an 

 awful existence, with no relation to previous ex- 

 periences of life, which is so often to be witnessed 

 among the women of the poor. With the artisan, 

 or at any rate with the laborer and his wife, it is 

 just the reverse. They have not the means of 

 obtaining knowledge by which to compare the 

 various lands that invite emigration. They are 

 quite unable to acquaint themselves, or to grow 

 familiar, with the idea of the new social and 

 material conditions that await them. Thus their 

 ignorance of the colonies allows the wildest no- 

 tions of misery and discomfort to take possessioEP. 

 of them, — notions that practically forbid them? 

 emigrating, except in case of severe pecuniary 

 pressure. They will seldom emigrate to better 

 themselves ; only do it, in fact, to prevent them- 

 selves falling lower. An institute where these 

 spectres can be laid wiU be of immense use in 

 increasing timely emigration, — emigration of 

 men who are not driven by despair. If the Lon- 

 don artisan can see good photographs of the Austra- 

 Han and Canadian towns and settlements, and can 

 notice around him the rich produce of the colo- 

 nies (the sugar, the wool, the wood, the com, the 

 wine, the oH); if he can learn that men live there 

 as they live here, that there are public-houses and 

 Simday-schools, and that he will not be daily ex- 

 pected to encounter naked savages ; and if at the 

 same time he can get inteUigent advice and direc- 

 tion from competent instructors on the spot, — he 

 will soon find his fears and dismal forebodings of 

 colonial wretchedness die away. 



But if the working-men are reaUy to make use' 

 of the institute, for this or for the other purpose of 

 political education, it will be utterly useless to place- 

 it in the West End. Working-men will not and can> 

 not travel for miles, at a considerable expense of 

 money and comfort, to see a museum. If it is 

 placed in a convenient situation, they will flock to 

 it as eagerly as they do to Mr. Barnett's Easter 

 exhibitions of pictures. If the institute is to do 

 the good work it ought to do, and can do, it must 



