DEPARTMENT OF PRACTICAL ART. On the 29th of January, 1852, the Lords Committee of the Privy Council for Trade, by whom the Schools of Design were administered, addressed a note to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, to this effect: "That while in many respects there was reason to be satisfied with the progress of the schools, and the influence they had exerted on ornamental art in the kingdom, they believed there were serious defects in the present management, which greatly impair their efficiency, and tend to result in their disorganization. With this view they proposed to create a Department in the Board of Trade to be called the Department of Practical Art, and to consist of two officers to be intrusted with the management of the Schools of Design, under their present direction, and to be assisted by the present Secretary of the Schools of Design. They proposed that one of these officers should give his whole time to the business of the Department, and be responsible for its proper management, and that the other officer should be an artist of high professional character, whose advice and assistance would be indispensable, but who could not give up his whole time to the business." On this general plan of administration the new Department was organized in 1852, and made a Report in 1853, when a new organization was instituted. DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE. The science schools and classes, which now exist in more than five hundred places in the United Kingdom, have been brought into existence chiefly by the agency of the Science and Art Department, a branch of the Education Department of the Committee of Council, under the direction of the Lord President of the Council, assisted by the Vice-President of the Committee on Education. The origin of the science division of this department may be said to date from the year 1852, when the subject of giving encouragement to the advancement of practical science was mentioned in the following words, by her Majesty, in her speech from the throne, on the 10th November, 1852, in opening the session of Parliament:-"The advancement of the fine arts and of practical science will be readily recognized by you as worthy of the attention of a great and enlightened nation. I have directed that a comprehensive scheme shall be laid before you, having in view the promotion of these objects, towards which I invite your aid and coöperation." This scheme was presented in the Second Report of the Commissioners of the Exhibition of 1851, composed of thirty members eminent in science, art, and public affairs in the kingdom, with Prince Albert as chairman. This remarkable document, in the light which the Great Exhibition had thrown on the strong and the weak points of the industry of Great Britain, as compared with the same condition in other countries, especially in France and Germany, after setting forth the efforts made by individuals, societies, and the government, for the promotion of Science and Art, as the surest tests of the advancement of a nation in the scale of civilization and general prosperity, pointed out at the same time, the want of system in the application of these forces to produce the beneficial effects which ought to be realized, especially in the field of artistic design and perfected skill in her manufactures. To this end the Commissioners recommended a union of all the institutions chartered and aided by the gov ernment for the promotion of Science and Art, under one official administration, so far as productive industry was concerned. In order to carry out this proposal, the Board of Trade, in a letter addressed to the Treasury, and signed by Mr. Cardwell, on the 16th March, 1853, suggested the formation of a Department of Science, similar to the one already existing under that Board for the encouragement of practical art. These two branches were to be formed into one, the motive power to be local and voluntary, and mainly self-supporting. This letter further advised the formation of a metropolitan establishment for the collection of illustrations, models, &c., of both science and art, and of a science school of a very high class, where pupils should complete their training, and from which information might be circulated to the provincial schools. The Government School of Mines and of Science applied to the Arts was to discharge the functions of this Metropolitan School of Science, and accordingly, with several other institutions, namely, the Museum of Practical Geology, the Geological Survey, the Museum of Irish Industry, the Royal Dublin Society, and, later, the Science and Art Museum, Edinburgh, was proposed to be placed under this new department. Her Majesty's Treasury approved of this proposal, laying particular stress on the idea that the best method of encouraging local institutions would be attained by the creation of a metropolitan school for science; and, accordingly, the Board of Trade Department of Science and Art, as it was to be called, came into existence. During the first six years, that is, from 1853 to 1859, very little was done for the promotion of science, the title of Science and Art Department being almost a misnomer. A few experiments were tried, and offers held out to localities to take up the subject of science instruction, but only eleven places in the United Kingdom responded. These were, Aberdeen, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Poplar (Green's Sailors' Home), Stoke, St. Thomas' Charterhouse, Truro, Wigan, and Wandsworth. The attempts at Leeds, Newcastle, Stoke, Truro, and Wandsworth were, however, soon given up, and the want of success of the plans pursued may be judged of from the fact that the aid from the Department to all the science classes, for the six years, amounted to but £898, the great difficulty in all cases being to obtain any fair amount of local interest and pecuniary support, without which, at that time, it was not considered desirable to grant State aid. In the year 1857, a Treasury Commission, composed of Lord Granville, Sir S. Northcote, and Sir C. Trevelyan, recommended that the Department of Science and Art should be transferred from the Board of Trade, and placed under the Lord President of the Council, assisted by a vice-president of the Committee of Council on Education, as a branch, though distinct from the Department for Primary Education. It may, therefore, be said that, up to the year 1859, there existed no general system of aid to science instruction which might be taken advantage of by any locality for its artisan population. In that year the minute of the 2d June was passed by Lord Salisbury and Mr. C. B. Adderley, to give aid in obtaining instruction in the following subjects, viz.:— 1. Practical and descriptive geometry, with mechanical and machine drawing, and building construction. 2. Physics. 3. Chemistry. 4. Geology, mineralogy (applied to mining). 5. Natural history. By this minute, payments were to be made to teachers on certificate allowance, and also on results, but in all cases the local managers were to guarantee for the support of the school, from fees or local funds, a sum at least equal to the government grants. This last condition would have rendered the spread of science schools very slow, if not altogether impossible, but it was never imposed. It was argued, and no doubt with great truth, that, when persons desire a thing, they are willing to pay for it, and the amount of their liberality will be in proportion to the desire they have for attaining the object; thus, if a locality could not meet the State half-way in the cost of a science school, no doubt the demand for the school and the desire to create it were not very great. It is, however, clear that the more the school is really required, the greater is the apathy frequently displayed concerning it, and that consequently this is a reason, not for withdrawing, but for increasing the State aid. In March, 1860, the first Science Directory, containing all the regulations on which aid to science instruction was to be granted, was issued, and the condition concerning local subscriptions was withdrawn, though the importance of all students paying fees, and as large fees as can be possibly obtained, has since been strongly urged. The real cause of the great success of the present plan, which, with various modifications in detail, has been in operation since 1860, is that, without irksome conditions, offers have been held out to enterprising teachers to form classes. The plans, from 1853 to 1860, all seemed intended, as it were, to awaken the locality to a sense of its duties and responsibilities to perform the task of educating its artisan classes, not only without profit to itself, but at a sacrifice of both time and money. The new plan held out offers to teachers. It said, "If you will qualify yourselves to teach, passing such and such an examination, the State will remunerate you for every artisan you can manage to get hold of, and induce to be taught; the amount of the remuneration to be in proportion to the amount of instruction imparted; or, if the teaching is deficient, and brings forth no fruit at the annual examination, no payment is to be made." No arrangement could be more satisfactory from a tax-payer's point of view. The country desired science instruction to its artisans, and it obtained it at a first cost, without any costly machinery or establishment. All the risk of success, the chief work of organizing the schools and getting the pupils together, fell mainly upon the teachers, whose pecuniary interest it was to make them answer. Consequently the scheme became a sound commercial undertaking, in which the community, under every condition, was a gainer. It must be considered also that this system provided a means of educating teachers, somewhat slow at first, though probably as fast as was then required, and that, too, at no cost to the State, such as an outlay on science-training colleges would have involved. Pupils of superior ability, after prosecuting their studies for several years in a science class, have become most successful teachers. As might be supposed, in the early years, this system grew but slowly, owing to the apathy of districts and the scarcity of teachers. A uniform and steady increase, however, was manifested from the first, and of late the development of the scheme has been most rapid, as may be judged from the following table: In the year 1862, eight (afterwards increased to nine) exhibitions to the Royal School of Mines were established; and, in 1865, ten (afterwards reduced to nine) more to the newly-created Royal College of Science in Dublin. Total expenditure in 1869-70, for general management, 9,472.; for South Kensington, 86,7287.; for Schools in connection, 82,7937, including 10,692. for London School of Mines; for Edinburgh Museum, 7,250l.; for Royal Dublin Society, 8,564.; for Dublin Royal College of Science, 6,6927.; Geological Survey, 18,791.; other objects, 8001. Total, 220,3447. Total Expenditures from 1853 to 1870 for Science and Art. Prizes, Instruments, &c.,. Traveling Expenses,.. South Kensington Museum. Buildings,.. Works and repairs, &c., Fires and Gas, Police Attendance,.. Salaries,..... £373,075 51,884 26,289 38,763 231,740 93,991 19,792 57,611 30,276 116,736 5,990 181,713 92,483 92,094 .£1,492,034 SCIENCE AND ART DEPARTMENT, AND THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM. We propose to present the design and development of the Science and Art Department in copious extracts from a series of Introductory Addresses, prepared and delivered in the autumn of 1857, for the express purpose of commending the special object of each portion of this great national movement and institution to the atten tion and coöperation of the people of Great Britain. FUNCTIONS OF THE SCIENCE AND ART DEPARTMENT. The Science and Art Department is rather a consolidation of institutions, most of which have been long established, than the creation of any new ones. The oldest institution connected with the Department is the Royal Dublin Society, which as early as 1800 received an annual public grant of 15,500l, a sum it disbursed without being subject to much parliamentary control. The School of Mines, Geological Museum in Jermyn Street, and Geological Survey, were in process of organization from 1837 to 1851, and were placed under the Chief Commissioner of Public Works. The Industrial Museum of Ireland owes its origin to Sir Robert Peel in 1845, and was also subject to the Chief Commissioner of Works, whilst the School of Design, which is the parent of the present Schools of Art located in all parts of the United Kingdom, and supported mainly by local authority and action, was founded in 1837 by Mr. Poulett Thompson, afterwards Lord Sydenham, and was subject to the authority of the Board of Trade. All these institutions had in view the promotion of scientific and artistic knowledge of an industrial tendency at the expense of the State, but they acted in different ways, independently of each other, and were subject to different kinds of ministerial responsibility. After the Exhibition of 1851, public opinion unanimously demanded that the State should give more systematic assistance to the scientific and artistic education of the people than it had hitherto done; and it was an obvious process, and in accordance with the working of institutions in this country, rather to improve and consolidate what existed already than to create a new institution. Accordingly, in 1852, whilst Mr. Cardwell was President of the Board of Trade, the Royal Dublin Society, the Mining Museum and School in Jermyn Street, the Industrial Museums of Ireland and Scotland, with the Department of Practical Art, were united to form the Department of Science and Art under a single parliamentary authority, and were required to publish an annual statement of the results of their working. The Science and Art Department now constitutes the division of the Committee of Council on Education, charged with the duty of offering to the public increased means for promoting secondary or adult education. All the functions attaching to primary education remain as a separate division of the Committee of Council, and are carried on at Whitehall. The recent transfer of the Science An Address on the Functions of the Science and Art Department. By Henry Cole, Secre tary and Superintendent. Delivered Nov. 16, 1857. and Art Department from the Board of Trade has not affected them, except to enable the President and Vice-President to render the working of any points of contact between primary and secondary education harmonious and consistent. The teaching of the applied sciences-chemistry, physics, natural history, mechanics, navigation, and the fine arts, taking drawing as an indispensable beginning constitutes the precise object of secondary education, developed in various ways by means of museums, schools, public examinations, payments for results, and the preparation of examples. Whatever advantages the Department is enabled to offer to the public may be obtained without requiring any denominational test, which the primary division of the Education Board at the present time demands. Except in the case of the public museums, which the public enter without payment at certain times, the aid tendered by the Department can only be obtained by a voluntary coöperation on the part of the public, and moderate payments, varying according to the means of the applicants for instruction, afford the test that the assistance sought is really valued. To obtain the assistance of the Department in establishing schools, there must be subscriptions from the benevolent to provide a capital for starting-the fees of students provide in great measure the current expenses and a partial payment to the teachers, whilst the Department comes in aid in various ways in paying for the instruction itself. Under this system all classes are enabled to take their proper share in it, and equal opportunities are afforded to the whole people for developing any talents they may be endowed with. The work thus done is mainly done by the public itself on a self-supporting basis as far as possible, whilst the State avoids the error of continental systems, of taking the principal and dominant part in Secondary Education. No Danger of Over-educating. It has been said, and particularly in reference to drawing, that the State is instructing people beyond their stations. I will not defend drawing, the necessity for which may be left to be dealt with in Mr. Burchett's lecture, except to say that Adam Smith half a century since observed, that "There is scarce a common trade which does not afford some opportunities of applying to it the principles of geometry and mechanics, and which would not therefore gradually exercise and improve the common people in those principles, the necessary introduction to the most sublime as well as to the most useful sciences. The public can encourage the acquisition of those most essential parts of education by giving small premiums and little badges of distinction to the children of the common people who excel in them." I will, however, answer the general argument against the over-education of the poor, by calling as my witness Archbishop Cranmer. It was proposed three centuries ago to admit to Canterbury Grammar School none but the sons of gentlemen; "Whereunto," as Strype in his Memorials relates, "the Most Reverend Father the Archbishop, being of a contrary mind, said, that he thought it not indifferent so to order the matter; 'for,' said he, 'poor men's children are many times endued with more singular gifts of nature, which are also the gifts of God, as with eloquence, memory, apt pronunciation, sobriety, and such like, and also commonly more apt to apply their study than is the gentleman's son, delicately educated.' Hereunto it was on the other part replied, that it was meet for the ploughman's son to go to plough, and the artificer's son to apply the trade of his parent's vocation; and the gentleman's children are meet to have the knowledge of government and rule in the Commonwealth. For we have,' said they, as much need of ploughmen as any other State; and all sorts of men may not go to school.' 'I grant,' replied the Archbishop, 'much of your meaning herein as needful in a Commonwealth; but yet utterly to exclude the ploughman's son and the poor man's son from the benefits of learning, as though they were unworthy to have the gifts of the Holy Ghost bestowed upon them as well as upon others, is as much as to say as that Almighty God should not be at liberty to bestow His great gifts of grace upon any person, nor nowhere else, but as we and other men shall appoint them to be employed, according to our fancy, and not according to His most godly will and pleasure, Who giveth His gifts, both of learning, and other perfections in all sciences, unto all kinds and states of people indifferently.' * 'The poor man's son by painstaking will for the most part be learned, when * * |