746 THE PLACE OF RESEARCH IN EDUCATION. 



twenty years ago, besides our universities, the three London colleges 

 and Owens College, Manchester, the country had little to boast of in 

 the way of institutions for higher learning to which those who had left 

 school could resort; but then important university colleges were 

 founded in rapid succession in a number of the chief provincial towns. 

 Meanwhile the educational fever spread to London, and there assumed 

 an extremely acute form under the name of technical education. The 

 City and Guilds of London Institute was founded, and built first the 

 Finsbury Technical College, and later the Central Technical College 

 at South Kensington, besides establishing an art school at Lambeth; 

 and by taking over, fostering, and largely extending the system of 

 technological examinations initiated by the Society of Arts, the City 

 Guilds Institute exercised an extraordinary influence on the establish- 

 ment and conduct of evening classes for instruction in technical sub- 

 jects throughout the country. A further development of the same 

 spirit has led more recently to the erection here, there, and everywhere 

 throughout London of polytechnics, etc., and of a large number of 

 technical schools of various degrees of importance in the provincial 

 towns. 



Why, it may be asked, all this educational activity, and why espe- 

 cially did the cause of technical education so suddenly spring into 

 prominence? The answer is, you know, because the conviction arose 

 that our manufacturing industries were being seriously threatened in 

 consequence of our failure to sufficiently avail ourselves of scientific 

 aid, and the greater appreciation by foreigners of the services of scien- 

 tifically trained workers. Because a feeling was abroad such as was 

 graphically expressed by Huxley in a remarkable letter to the Times 

 at the close of 1886 in which he pointed out that we had "already 

 entered upon the most serious struggle for existence to which this 

 country has ever been committed," adding "the latter years of this 

 century promise to see us embarked in an industrial war of far more 

 serious import than the military wars of its opening years. On the 

 east, the most systematically instructed and best-informed people in 

 Europe are our competitors ; on the west, an energetic offshoot of our 

 own stock, grown bigger than its parent, enters upon the struggle, 

 possessed of natural resources to which he can make no pretension, 

 and with every jjrospect of soon possessing that cheap labor by which 

 they may be effectually utilized. Many circumstances tend to justify 

 the hope that we may hold our own if we are careful to organize 

 victory." 



The question is, Have the steps we have taken to protect ourselves, 

 to hold our own, to organize victory, led to success? In most cases, 

 most certainly not. We are fast proving ourselves to be incapable of 

 holding our own in almost every branch of industry. 



Of course there are certain brilliant exceptions to the general rule, 

 but these only prove the rule and enable us to understand the cause of 

 our failure. 



