The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-23 00:00:00

TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN ENGLAND,

(From the Mechanics' Magazine.)
There is a marked contrast between the avowed
intention of the instruction of youth on the con-
tinent and in this country. The general consent of
authority here is that the object of the school is
chiefly and primarily mental discipline, and, in a
secondary degree, the acquirement of rudimentary
knowledge of these subjects which either form the
key to other studies, or which must necessarily be
studied early, if they are ever to be mastered. It is
only casually that useful knowledge is admitted in
our conventional notion of education. The chief
work of our public schools is the classics, and these
are taught more as illustrations of general grammar
and of the structure of language than with a view
to the mere facility of reading Latin and Greek
authors. Mathematics are but little studied ; and
the modern tendency is to regard them more as a
peculiar example and exercise of logic than to teach
them with direct reference to their immediate prac-
tical use. Mensuration, linear drawing, and practi-

cal geometry have been dropped, and descriptive
geometry never adopted in the ordinary curriculum.
The presumption is that the school and the university
have trained a man to learn, and that his practical
education begins when he leaves the latter. We are
not prepared to discuss the propriety of the system in
so far as it applies to the higher and wealthier
classes. We may be quite sure that they will always
see their own true interests, or, if they do not, that
they will soon be replaced by people who are more
alert. It is sufficient to observe that it defers prac-
tical education to an age when the children of the

middle and professional elasses ought to have begun

to maintain themselves. Now, in France, Prussia,

Switzerland, and the states lying between them, the
instruction of the people is conducted on a totally
different principle. While the classics are far less
exclusively studied, a knowledge of them is much
more common. 'They are taught as languages to
be understood and written, while the chief applica-
tion of grammar is to the language of the country,
whether French, German, or Dutch. Geometry is
taught, not from Euclid, but in a thoroughly prat
tical form, and the whole of the mathematical in-

struction has direct reference to possible applica-
tion. The result is
_that an English boy leaves
school at 15 or 16 years of age with an imperfect
smattering of Latin and Greek and an acquaint-
_ _ _ .

ance with algebra and Euclid which it would be r
diculous to dignify by the name of inatheinatica
knowledge ; while the French or German has ac•
quired a useful general training, of which he finds
the immediate application in his technical school,
if he is in a situation to prolong his education, or
in his business, if he passes at 013C3 to a skilled
handicraft. As regards the higher results of the
two systems, we do not find that the best scholars
of France and Germany are inferior to the great men
whom our own universities have produced. At the
other end of the system we find that the superior
education of the artisans, and especially of the fore-
men and designers, have enabled them to compete
with and outsell us in our best staples, notwith-
standing the advantage which we had in holding
prior possession of the markets, and in cheap access
to raw material. We have no longer the lead either
as workers in iron, as engineers, or as engineering
contractors. It is not many years since that these
three things were among our chief sources of na:
tional pride. It is a very significant thing that one
of the difficulties which Mr. Merrifield said he Lad
had to encounter was the want of proper English
books for practical instruction. lie attributed this
to the increasing logical tendency of university ma-
thematics. We think it quite probable he has not
made sufficient allowance for the very special cha-
racter of the instruction which it is his duty to im-
part, and for the obvious difficulty of exactly suiting,
out of the existing means, any unexpected require-
! ment. Still, as he stated that much of what has to
be taught in the School of Naval Architecture is
simply pure mathematics and mechanics, it is not
likely that the complaint is wholly without founda-
tion. Mr. Scott Russell's paper is little more than a
detailed illustration of what we have advanced, a -
an account of the constitution and progress of the
School of Naval Arc'lit,cture at South Kensington.
We have made free use
.of his ideas in our argu-
ments, and this acknowledgment will render an
epitome of his paper superfluous. We cannot too
earnestly impress on our readers the importance
of encouraging technical education in this coun-
try. There are at present but three professions
which really receive it—the Royal Navy, the
Royal Engineers, the Artillery, and the Staff of
the Army, and the medical profession. To these
we think we may now add the naval architects and
1 marine engineers, although we can harily regard
their school at South Kensirigton as more than a
promising experiment. The chemists and the pat-
tern designers, too, have done a little; and this
short summary disposes of all that exists in Englind
in the way of technical instruction. But there is
an-increasing sense of its value, which we hope our
civil engineers and metallurgists will not be the last
to carry into practical effect.

DROWNED WHILST ATTEMPTING TO SAVE A
DOG.—A very painful case of drowning took place in the
River Don, near Doncaster, on Sunday morning. A
painter at the Railway-plant Works, named Wharton, 31
years of age, went with his wife for a walk in Crimpsail,
by the river side. f hey took their little dog with them, and
were accompanied by a friend and his.wife, who had also a
dog with them. When opposite Newton deceased suggested
that the dogs should be sent into the water, but his d
being a very young one did not take to the river so ki.
as was expected, awl Wharton asked his friend to throw ,
in. This was done, when the poor little animal was seen
strus glingas though it were drowning; thereupon deceased,
who was a good swimmer, took off all his things, save his
stockings and trousers, an I jumped into the river to the
rescue of his dog. Directly he got into the water he ap-
peared to struggle violently, and almost immediately went
down. He rose again on his side, and his friend rushed
nearly up to his neck in the river and put out his hand to
save him. At the same instant the poor distracted wife
rushed almost into the water imploring the man to save
her husband or let her die with him, and it was all he
could do to prevent her jumping in after her husband. In
the meantime the unfortunate man had disappeared, whilst
the dog had struggled to shore. The body of deceased was
recovered about two hours afterwards, and an inquest was
held last evening before Mr. John Ii ter, the borough
(=mar, when a verdict was returned 111. accordance with
the above facts.—Yorkshire Poe.