1882.] On Technical Education. 411 
of different nations, the markets also being more numerous 
and larger, and present improvements in manufacturing 
industries being the outcome of higher scientific knowledge 
than those in the past required for their successful carrying 
out far more scientific skill than the older and cruder ones 
did ; and the requirements and tastes of the people of all 
countries are ever increasing and ever changing, and there- 
fore the manufacturer who would be successful in the present 
day must be constantly anticipating the wants of the public 
by new inventions. 
Although England has contributed a goodly number of 
those educational reformers who have from time to time 
appeared with new and improved methods for teaching the 
very young, no one has yet come forward in this country 
with a good system of school education suitable for boys 
intended for commercial and manufacturing pursuits. The 
reason no doubt is due, in a great measure, to the faCt that 
all the chief appointments in our grammar and other public 
schools have been occupied exclusively by clergymen whose 
education, both at school and the university, has been that 
based on the requirements of the Middle Ages. It could 
not be expected that there would arise from this class of 
teachers a reformer who would strike out a course of study 
for youths that would fit them best for their future employ- 
ments in commerce or manufactures ; and as they exclusively 
occupied the chief scholastic situations, and imposed on the 
country the system of school education adopted, they pre= 
vented laymen from taking part in educational reforms. It 
is true that many of our scientific men have given evidence 
before Commissions, and addressed the public — either on the 
platform or through the press— on the necessity of intro- 
ducing one or more of the InduCtive Sciences into the 
course of school studies, but I am not aware that any of 
them has yet propounded a complete course of studies for 
boys of the middle class. Nay, they have not even discussed 
the best methods of teaching the induction sciences in schools, 
but have been contented to continue antiquated methods or 
accept newer ones at second-hand. Although boys intended 
for manufacturing pursuits ought to lay the foundation-stone 
of knowledge of one or more of the inductive sciences at 
school, there are other subjects more important than the 
inductive sciences which boys intended for trade and com- 
merce ought to be taught. 
Instead of establishing, as other countries have done, 
schools in which the course of instruction given is suitable 
for the wants of the middle class, we are trying to combine 
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