xxxiv 
Monthhj Council, Febmary 4, 1891. 
to them on the subject of technical 
education, had agreed upon a further 
report (see page 155), which, with their 
reijort of November 4 last, they sub- 
mitted for the coDsideration and 
approval of the Council. 
Motion by Mr. Pell. 
Sir. Pell, in moving " That the 
Council approve of a Normal School 
of Agriculture for Scientific Instruc- 
tion," said he was afraid that the 
motion of which he had given notice 
must take the character of an amend- 
ment to the motion of Mr. Dent, 
because if the Council committed 
themselves to the acceptance and 
adoption of the report, he was at 
once barred from moving further. 
The feature of the Education Com- 
mittee's report of November 5,' 
which immediately concerned the 
Council, was the disagreement with 
the first recommendation of the 
report on technical education in agri- 
culture, prepared by the Joint Com- 
mittee of the Central Chamber of 
Agriculture and the Farmers' Club. 
Tliat recommendation was " That 
there should be established and main- 
tained, at the cost of the State, a 
central normal school of agriculture." 
On the whole, the Education Com- 
mittee, in considering that report, 
agreed to the recommendations with 
the very striking exception of the 
first one, and (one not so material) 
of the sixth and last recommendation 
of the Joint Committee. He entirely 
agreed in the feeling of their own 
Committee in not wishing to endorse 
the sixth recommendation ; but he 
had a very strong opinion with regard 
to the first. There was no occasion 
to go over the ground again, because 
the proceedings of the Council of 
November 5 had been in print, and 
had been before the public for three 
months. He had first to ask the 
Council for one moment to consider 
the grounds which he had for taking 
np his present attitude ; and secondly, 
the position in which they found the 
subject in the deliberations of that 
Council. Probably that position was 
the outcome of circumstances. Their 
motto was " Practice with Science," 
and he thought science must not be 
' See Vol. i. Pt. iv. (1890), page 851. 
forgotten. How was science dealt 
with in the Council? It was dealt 
with in two Committees — the 
Chemical Committee and the Com- 
mittee on Education. The greater 
part of the time of the Chemical 
Committee was taken up in dealing 
with what he might call " commercial 
transactions." Their time was occu- 
pied in protecting members of the 
Society from the fraud of dishonest 
dealers in manure and feeding-stufis. 
To this Committee there was a Sub- 
Committee, called the Woburn Sab- 
Committee. That was distinctly a 
scientific committee — a committee 
which concerned itself with research, 
in which, as they all knew, they had 
received the most direct and valuable 
assistance from the historic house of 
Russell. There remained, then, the 
Education Committee. The conside- 
ratiiin of the report of that very im- 
portant committee had somehow got 
to the bottom of the sack. It was, he 
believed, almost the last report which 
the Council dealt with in the arrange- 
ment of its proceedings. The report 
of November 5 had received the same 
sort of treatment that this report had 
met with. It was then decided that 
the subject should be postponed for 
further and more serious considera- 
tion. 
It was in order to give some 
direct line to the way in which they 
should broach the question that he 
had ventured to make the motion 
which stood in his name. A great 
many members of Council had en- 
tirely misapprehended his motion. 
They had taken it to imply a central 
school established by the State, con- 
trolled by the State, and maintained 
by the State, and that what he had to 
say referred to State establishment and 
control. Some, again, had thought that 
in his motion was implied a farm — an 
experimental, or what was called a 
model farm — which was generally, as 
far as his experience went, a model 
of all that they ought not to do. 
Many members appeared to have left 
the Council under the impres.sion 
that he was advocating State control 
and a model farm. He should be 
sorr}' for their having come to such a 
conchision ; he only asked thorfi to 
endorse iiis motion in the precise 
terms which he had proposed : "That 
