162 Lectures on the liesults of the 



It was obvious that when improved locomotion gave to all 

 countries raw material at slight differences of cost, that any superi- 

 ority in the intellectual element would more than balance the 

 difference. The Continental States, acting on a perception of this 

 truth, saw that they could only compete with English industry by 

 instructing their populations in the principles of science. Hence 

 have arisen, in their capitals, in their towns, and even in their 

 villages, institutions for affording a systematic training in science ; 

 and industry has been raised from the rank of an empirical art to 

 that of a learned profession. The result is seen in the fact that 

 we now meet most European nations as competitors in all the 

 markets of the world. The result is palpably forced upon us by 

 our actual displacement from markets in which we had a practical 

 monopoly. The result was obvious in the Exhibition, where we 

 saw many nations, formerly unknown as producers, frequently ap- 

 proaching, and often excelling us in manufactures our own by 

 hereditary and traditional right. 



The teaching of the Exhibition was to impress me with the 

 strongest conviction that England, by relying too much on her local 

 advantages, was rapidly losing her former proud position among 

 manufacturing nations ; and that unless she speedily adopted mea- 

 sures to cultivate the intellectual element of production, by instruct- 

 ing her population in the scientific principles of the arts which they 

 profess, she must inevitably and with rapidity lose those sources 

 of power, which, in spite of the smallness of her home territory, 

 have given to her so exalted a rank among nations. 



With these convictions you will not be surprised that I have 

 chosen subjects connected with the Exhibition, although I have no 

 merit or part whatever in their discovery. I have selected them for 

 the following reasons. 



We have a great reliance on the practical sagacity or common 

 sense of our population, — certainly superior to that of any part of 

 Europe : but we have not strengthened it by communicating scien- 

 tific knowledge to those who are entrusted with the exercise of this 

 practical power ; and hence this common sense, unaided by the 

 rules of science, has gradually assumed a sway over our manufac- 

 tures. In other words, conjectural judgments have usurped the 

 place of systematic knowledge. Practice and science have been 

 followed out separately, as having no immediate connection. This 

 separation, and even practical antagonism, has been fatal to our pro- 

 gress in industry ; for manufacturers, as a body, have ceased to per- 

 ceive that abstract science forms the roots of the tree of industry, 

 and that to separate them is to sever the tree from its roots. In 

 order to restore vigour to our declining industry, it is essential that 

 confidence in the powers of science should be imparted to practice, 

 and that the latter should be taught that it is, even as a question 

 of social policy, highly important to encourage discoveries in ab- 



