79 ° 
Technical Education in 
[December, 
III. TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN ENGLAND, 
FRANCE, AND GERMANY. 
,HE City of London Guilds and other corporate bodies 
'nlh seem at length to be convinced of the absolute neces- 
sity of adopting some measure for the advancement 
of technical education in England. As far back as the Paris 
International Exhibition of 1867 our English masters and work- 
men awoke to the fa< 5 t that the leading position which we had 
formerly occupied as makers of the world’s goods was being 
endangered by the talent and enterprise of foreign nations. 
The first note of alarm was sounded by Dr. Lyon Playfair, in 
a letter addressed to Lord Taunton, the Chairman of the 
Schools Inquiry Commission then sitting. The aim of this 
communication was to enquire whether England was really 
losing her high position in those industries which involve 
the application of scientific knowledge to production, and, 
if so, whether this retrogression was due to our comparative 
backwardness in the diffusion of a knowledge of applied 
science amongst the working classes. The British Com- 
missioners appreciated the warning at its proper value, and, 
taking advantage of the presence in Paris of some of the 
most eminent British men of science of the day, they con- 
sulted them on the subject, the result being that, with 
scarcely a single dissentient voice, they affirmed that the 
lack of technical education on the part of British masters 
and workmen was slowly, but surely, undermining the posi- 
tion of Great Britain as mistress of the industrial arts. 
Speaking generally these salutary warnings have been 
neglected, although in some few isolated instances they have 
been duly adted upon. These praiseworthy efforts have for 
the most part been the work of individuals, and as such 
have only wrought good in particular localities, anything 
like combined adlion being entirely wanting. 
Amongst the latest utterances on this vitally important 
subject, the paper on “ Apprenticeship Schools ” read by 
Prof. Silvanus Thompson before the British Association at 
Sheffield, and just republished in pamphlet form,* and 
the Address of Prof. Ayrton at the opening of the City and 
Guilds of London Institute, t are the most striking. The 
* Apprenticeship Schools in France. By Silvanus P. Thompson, B.A., 
D.Sc., F.R.A.S., Professor of Experimental Physics, University College, 
Bristol. London : Hamilton, Adams, and Co. 
f The Improvements Science can efLdt in our Trades and in the Condition 
of Our Workmen. By Prof. W. E. Aykton. 
