50 HENEY DEANE. 



have been seriously handicapped, and it is not likely that they 

 would have distinguished themselves above their fellows to the 

 same degree. 



The reality of the importance of properly instructing engineers 

 in the ground work of their profession is now officially recognised 

 by the Institution of Civil Engineers. An alteration in the by- 

 laws has been quite recently effected, by which the council are 

 empowered to require that all candidates for the associate-mem- 

 bership shall submit themselves for examination, the same to be 

 dispensed with only if evidence of previous training of an acknow- 

 ledged kind is forthcoming. Other qualifications such as experi- 

 ence have the same value as before. In the case of full member- 

 ship application for entry will be most carefully scrutinised, and it 

 is probable that it will not be long before the stamp of membership 

 of the Institution will be looked upon as the greatest testimonial 

 of competence, next to the carrying out of some great work, which 

 the engineer will be able to show. 



The above ought to be an encouragement to young would-be 

 engineers, to enter the Engineering School at the Universities. I 

 have not infrequently been asked to advise as to youths who 

 wished to take up engineering, and I have invariably recommended 

 a University training. It is of no use beginning at the wrong 

 end. If a man tries to learn practical engineering first, and study 

 the principles afterwards, he will have very great difficulty in 

 acquiring the latter at all, he will not have time to devote to it, 

 and he will always be seriously handicapped. All men are not 

 equally endowed with common sense, and a certain untrained man 

 may have more of that article naturally than some other trained 

 man, but it is only the man who is properly taught who can cor- 

 rectly use his judgment and his reasoning powers. Those young 

 men who have not studied the principles of their profession had 

 better begin now. I fully believe that in a few years' time the 

 untrained man will cease to be employed, or at least he will 

 have little chance of rising. 



