1884 .] Correspondence. 303 
volume, it may be said that the reasons given for the existence 
of the Gipsies in a civilised state are amply sufficient to explain, 
connedt, and substantiate the various fadts discovered. 
“ New York, 1866.” 
This should not prove without interest to a large part of 
English readers. It has been a matter of great surprise to me 
that in Great Britain there should have been, and should still be, 
such a strong aversion to examine, discuss, and do justice to 
this subjedt, which applies to a relatively large body of people 
whose blood for the most part is not Gipsy, but that of the ordi- 
nary one of the country. In “ The Gipsies,” as illustrated by 
John Bunyan, Mr. Carlyle, and others, published in 1883, I wrote 
as follows : — 
“In my additions to the ‘ History of the Gipsies,’ I think I 
presented every aspedt in which the subjedt could be viewed. . . . 
I stated at great length on these occasions how the tribe acquired 
the names of the ordinary natives, how its blood got mixed, how 
it gradually swarmed from the tent and progressed, how it main- 
tained its identity and will do so for the future, and what it is 
that in its essence constitutes a Gipsy, as distinguished from the 
nationality or family of other people ” (p. 27). 
James Simson. 
New York, March 25, 1884. 
TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 
I have read with much interest the able articles on Technical 
Education contributed by Mr. Galloway to the “Journal of 
Science.” The articles have opened up a subjedt of vital im- 
portance to Englishmen. The signs of the times unquestionably 
point to the decay of England’s supremacy in the Arts and Com- 
merce, and Mr. Henry George — no mean authority— has recently 
stated that, in his opinion, England has entered upon her period 
of decline. 
The question arises, Why should England ever decline until 
her natural resources are exhausted ? There is no reason, except 
it lies in the perversity of the official system which forces upon 
us inadequate methods of Technical Education which have for 
their only result a vast and useless expenditure of public money. 
I have from time to time had ample opportunity of observing 
persons trained under the Science and Art Department, and I 
have been led to the conclusion that the training has been of 
little value in fitting them to take an intelligent part in commer- 
cial life, and I have been especially impressed by the almost 
