Great Exhibition of 1851. 167 



There must be other means of conveying its God-born truths to in- 

 dustry, in order to freshen and invigorate its existence. The results 

 of continental success indicate that the true way for those requiring 

 aid is to come to the fountain of knowledge and take that which 

 they need. 



I need not detain you longer on this subject, except again to 

 urge you to consider what must be the result of the system of in- 

 struction pursued abroad. In addition to many provincial schools, 

 France has two central colleges of arts and manufactures, in one 

 of which 300 of the best youth of France commence their educa- 

 tion in science just where our colleges leave off, and after two 

 years, they are poured into the provinces to impart to industry 

 the principles of science which they have there attained. Prussia, 

 Austria, Russia, and the Northern States are encouraging the 

 same kind of education, and even yet more extensively. Need we 

 be surprised, then, that they are progressing so rapidly in manu- 

 factures, in spite of their dear fuel and machinery. Recollect 

 that we have reached that state when in future the competition of 

 industry must be a competition of intellect. 



Is England in a prepared state to meet this intellectual compe- 

 tition \ Have we adapted the system of instruction in our schools 

 to the wants and necessities of the age ? Has science, or a know- 

 ledge of God's works and God's goodness and wisdom, yet become 

 an important part of the instruction of our sons of industry, or do 

 we not, by an antiquated notion, preserve the idea that the classi- 

 cal learning of the thirteenth century is all-sufficient for the re- 

 quirements of the nineteenth century % 



These questions are truly important if we desire to see England 

 keep her ground in the industrial struggle of nations. I wish not 

 to underrate any branch of human learning ; but I do vehemently 

 desire to see banished from our schools the bed of Procrustes, to 

 the dimensions of which our children are clipped or extended until 

 they are so changed in their natural aspirations for science, that 

 it is very difficult, in after life, to communicate that amount which 

 is necessary for its application to industry. I need not say, there- 

 fore, that until scientific instruction be added to the general system 

 of education of our youth, that England cannot expect to be fore- 

 most in the industrial race of nations. 



Already we see our capital largely employed to import foreign 

 talent into our manufactures, and by this, in many cases, we retain 

 our superiority. But it does not require much acumen to perceive 

 the wretchedness of this policy as regards the nation, which, careless 

 of the education of her own sons, sends her capital as a premium 

 to the advancement of that intellectual knowledge in foreign states, 

 who use it as the means of her destruction. 



Excuse me if I have expressed my convictions on these points 

 more strongly than you feel them ; but they have taken such strong 



