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On Technical Education. 
[May : 
little parity of reasoning, all who have had to receive and 
expend money ought to be versed in the science of Money ; 
yet it is well known that this is not the case, — that only a 
very small percentage of the community have any knowledge 
of money as a whole ; and it is equally true that only a very 
small percentage of the educated portion of the public are 
really and truly educationists. 
Prof. James Bryce, M.P., in his article “ The Future of 
English Universities,” in the “ Fortnightly Review ” for 
March, refers to the prevailing opinion that anyone who has 
received a so-called good education is considered to be a 
thoroughly competent person to undertake the difficult task 
of improving and reforming our educational institutions and 
systems. He states, referring to the two University Com- 
missions appointed, by the Adt of 1877, to reform the Uni- 
versities and Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge respectively, 
— “ What have they accomplished ? What has been the 
total result for good of their labours ? They received from 
the Legislature, which no doubt felt its own incompetence 
to handle such problems, scanty and vague instructions. A 
large discretion was given them to settle things as they 
thought best. Some little power of resistance the Colleges 
had, but it was such as the Commissioners easily could, and 
often did, overbear. The credit or discredit of the work, 
therefore, belongs to the Commissioners. Nor, though they 
were appointed by a Conservative Government, can anyone 
say that a Liberal Government would be likely to have 
chosen Commissioners any better qualified for the work. 
For the rule in England seems to be , with both parties , to place 
on a Commission not men of special capacity or knowledge , but 
persons generally prominent , if not eminent, such as judges and 
bishops, and leading members of either House of Parliament .” 
Mr. Bryce’s remarks have a much wider application. Not 
only do Governments appoint men, to improve and reform 
our educational institutions, who have never signalised them- 
selves in the least in the science of Education, but they 
likewise — with the same indifference apparently with regard 
to the educational progress of the country — frequently place 
men in prominent positions, in our educational departments, 
who have never betrayed the slightest qualification for the 
important duties they have to undertake. 
. An excellent educator, like a distinguished orator, states- 
man, musician, or painter, is born one ; he is born endowed 
with those necessary mental qualifications, in a marked 
degree, which are required for the originating of and carrying 
out philosophical methods of teaching. There are many 
