Transactions of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts

The resolutions arrived at by the Conference on Technical Education, and the able address of your President, prove that this Society is fully alive to the necessity for improved scientific instruction throughout the country. I will not, therefore, detain you with any arguments upon general principles which have been affirmed by every class of society, but taking it for granted that we are all of one mind in believing that the education of our artisans, our manufacturers, and our engineers should be improved by the improved and extended teaching of science, I purpose to-night to confine myself chiefly to practical suggestions of steps which I think might be immediately taken towards the object which we have all in view.

I well know the difficulty and danger of making practical suggestions. The man who confines himself to general principles, and the critic who assails existing abuses, is sure to carry a large portion of his audience with him. The abuses are often palpable, and the general truths soon become popular truisms; but the man who brings forward new proposals for definite action, cannot and ought not to expect Read before the Society 11th January 1869.

VOL. VIII.

an equally ready adhesion to his schemes. They must in their turn run the gauntlet of criticism, and be subject to many successive amendments, before any large body will consent to put them in practice; but a man who will thus subject himself to criticism, with the object of attaining an avowedly good end, may at least ask for an indulgent hearing before the criticism begins, and this indulgence I ask from you to-night.

Probably the general improvement in the scientific education of the community at large can only be effected by the adoption of some such scheme as that proposed by the Schools Inquiry Commission, having for its result a complete system of schools of different grades under local management, but subject to general regulations laid down by a department of the government. The Commission have shown how the necessary funds for such a system can be obtained, and have proposed a definite scheme for the administration of these funds. If schools, of several grades systematically arranged, were once established, it would be an easy matter to insist on the introduction into a given number of each grade such distinctly scientific training as would warrant the appellation of science schools, as distinguished from classical schools, and results would soon show whether science does or does not afford an excellent material for mental culture, besides that merely useful information which it is not the chief object of education to impart. If a system of graded schools existed, we could apply towards their improvement the masses of information. which have been collected as to foreign courses of study. Now, even when we know our own wishes, what bodies are we to attack? It is hopeless to expect that a successful experiment on any great scale can be made so long as the schools of the country are under an infinite number of different trustees, corporations, and committees wholly incapable of combined action. I do not purpose to-night to examine the proposals of the Commission, but will direct your attention, in connection with this part of the subject, to the report of the Sub-Committee on Technical Education appointed by the London Society of Arts.

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