The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-11 00:00:00

technical knowledge, technical knowledge itself, and
preparation for conducting practical works. We call
the attention of parents and guardians in search of
a profession for young men to Mr. Fowler's view
of the sort of person that is required, and the train-
ing he must go through in order to qualify himself
for a civil engineer. We must assume the existence
of a boj of 14 years of age, with a decided mechani-
cal bias, a strong constitution, and considerable
energy and perseverance of character ; having made
satisfactory progress in his general education, espe-
cially in arithmetic, he should be taught natural
philosophy, land surveying, drawing, chemistry,
mineralogy, geology, strength of materials, mechani-
cal motion, hydraulics, with some knowledge of
French and German. This soands formidable ; but
it must be remembered that the practical work of
engineering does not deal with the higher and more
abstruse parts of these sciences, but rather requires
a thorough knowledge of their leading rudimentary
principles. The next step is to article the student to
a civil engineer, to place him in a mechanical esta-
blishment, or to send him to a university. Mr.
Fowler seems to think that a university training
would be the best possible, but he adds that it is a
somewhat hazardous combination, and can only be
successful if the pupil determines to keep his future
career always steadily in view. We may add—what
is perhaps not tnown to Mr. Fowler—that the pre-
paration necessary to enable a young man to pass
with credit through a university would make a very
serious inroad on the time to be given to the preli-
minary studies of which he speaks, and would
therefore greatly interfere with the elementary stu-
dies on which he lays so much weight, to say no-
thing of the danger that the studies and associa-
tions of the place might disgust the student with a
profession which wears at its first entrance a rough
and mechanical aspect. Mr. Fowler recommends
the choice of a young civil engineer under whom to
study, whose business is not too large, and who is
accustomed to take pupils in proportion, and not
more than in proportion, to his business. In this
part of his career he must especially attend to three
things—the knowledge of materials, the power of
designing, and the power of calculating the price of
any work. We have gone through these recom-
mendations in considerable detail, because they come
from high authority, and because they are strongly
stamped with the impress of earnestness,good sense,
and moderation. Nor do we less approve what Mr.
Fowler has not said than what he has. There is
not a word in this address pointing to the expediency
of founding an institution which should interfere in
the slightest degree with the liberty of any one to
practise the business of civil engineering, with the
information required for that practice, or with the
place where:the education is to be gained. The use-
ful and admirable class of men to whom this country
owes so much has sprung into existence by its own
energy, and, being perpetually subjected to the un-
failing test of success or failure, needs no artificial
distinction to authenticate its pretensions. Of
course, where there is a demand for a particular
kind of knowledge, there is sure to arise a number
of persons anxious to supply it, and the wider the
profession and the greater the prizes that it offers
the better that education is sure to be. As a humble
contribution from ourselves in this direction, we
beg to call attention to an institution which is among
the most valuable that exist in this country, but
having been founded by Government, and being
therefore one which it is nobody's interest to puff,
has by no means attracted the attention it deserves.
We allude to the Government School of Mines in
Jermyn-street, which appears to be a place exactly
calculated to give that amount of information in
the different sciences which Mr. Fowler considers
necessary. It includes among its professors some
of the most distinguished men of science in the
country—Huxley, Hoffman, Tyndall, Willis, Percy,
Warrington Smyth ; and, though called a School
of Mines, is really a place of preparatory education
for any occupation which is principally concerned
with physical science. We can only understand
its not having been more resorted to from the be-
lief that to the great number of parents it is utterly
unknown. There is no greater want of the present
day than a place of good rudimentary scientific
education. That want is admirably supplied, and
yet comparatively few persons avail themselves of
the advantages which are offered.
PosT.—Although when the House of Commons
was elected the voting power of parties might be
estimated with approximate exactitude, the calcula-
tions that were made on the basis of Lord Palmer-
ston's Administration are necessarily deceptive and
comparatively worthless. Even as regards the Op-
position they must be to some extent fallacious.
The event which paralysed the Liberal party tended
to consolidate the Conservative. But if it is diffi-
cult to reckon upon the votes of members On gene-
ral questions, it is utterly impossible to conjecture
how they will be divided on the question of extend-
ing the franchise. It has been roughly assumed
that from forty to fifty Liberals would join with the
Opposition in resisting any change in the represen-
tation which threatened to destroy the constitu-
tional equilibrium ; and further, that if the House
were balloted, a Reform Bill could hardly be ex-
pected to pass the second reading. Be this, how-
ever, as it may, a mere tyro in Parliamentary tactics
must be aware that on such a measure amendments
may be so formulated as to catch votes from almost
every quarter, and this is a circumstance that seems
to invite some serious consideration. All speculation
on the balance of parties is idle, and though it is
equally idle to say so—for people will go on sum-
ming up apocryphal figures to no more purpose than
those who waste time and cardpaper in marking the
oscillation of a game of trente et quarante—the condi-
tions on which the question of Parliamentary Reform
may have to be solved are of infinitely higher im-
portance. As regards the principle involved, it may
be presumed that there will not be much iifficulty..
The House of Commons is properly averse from
what is called hair - splitting, and it can matter
very little whether the expediency of extending,
amending, modifying, or reducing the franchise be
affirmed
on the second reading. It is in committee
that the shape and extent of the suggested altera-
tion must be settled, and there, in point of fact, the
fate of the bill will be determined. Lord Russell did,
it is true, interpose and prevent the extension of the
franchise being considered in committee in 1859,
but Mr. Disraeli will scarcely think that it is wise,
or worth while, to uphold the Reform Act against
its venerable author, who desires to correct it for
the benefit of future generations, and particularly as
nothing which is, however remotely, relevant to the
subject may not be exhaustively discussed between
the second and third reading of the measure. Mr.
Bright has been considerate enough to advise Mi-
nisters to get their bill drawn by an able lawyer ;
but if he had also provided them with the lantern of
Diogenes they could not possibly exercise any con-
trol over the absolute discretion of Parliament. If
those who have charge of the scheme, whatever it
may be, entertain an invincible objection to the
change of its complexion and features, they had bet-
ter not submit it to the rough ventilation of public
opinion. In the calm, tepid atmosphere of a Whig
Cabinet it might preserve all its ideafbeauty, and
be a joy for ever to its happy parents ; but the
House of Commons is fastidious and somewhat cyni-
cal. Mr. Gladstone knows perfectly well that the
rhetorical preliminary debate is as a garden of Eden
as compared with the excruciating torments of the
Parliamentary operating room. The power of the
House is only governed by its sense of right, and it
might, if it thought fit, use the ministerial preamble
for a bill of its own. It might pass a bill repealing
the clauses of the Reform Act which deprived the
working classes of a direct and distinct representa-
tion, and reducing the suffrage, which, upon the
whole, its enfranchising clauses raised. It might
even take the Reform Bills of 1854 and of 1859,
and extract from them matter enough to make one
tolerably good measure. In short, if Lord Russell
is not prepared td see the old tree as well as the
tender sapling pruned and bent, he may
come to think, when it is too late, that
this question could have been more dispassion-
ately answered by a royal commission, which, be-
sides affording to the country the information it
required, would have allowed time for the recon-
struction of the Ministry. But, as it is, Parliament
and the country may not unreasonably be of opinion
that it will be judicious to enter into the matter
comprehensively, and to dispose of it definitively,
at all events so far as the present generation is con-
cerned. If the thing is to be done, it ought to be
done as well as may be, and, even on Mr. Bright's
showing, there need be no hurry about it. Sup-
posing that the existence of the recently-elected
House of Commons would not be shortened by any
enlargement of the system of representation, legis-
lation on the subject may be deliberative, at least
as regards time. With six sessions before it, the
House will have leaisure to think before it votes,

and, under such circumstances, it cannot be neces-.

sary to take any measure at sight for better or for
worse. Moreover, it will .be indispensable to ascer-

tain if her Majesty's Ministers have or have not

drawn their Reform-Bill on the understanding that
it is to open up a way for the introduction of secret

voting, and -a
redistribution of Parliamentary.
power; for, so far from having facilitated its dis-
cussion, Mr. Bright's exceeding candour has raised
a new difficulty. If the extension of the franchise
is to lead to voting by ballot, and to a rearrange-
ment of seats, and if those organic modifications
are to give household suffrage as their first result,
the whole theory of the contemplated revolution
must be taken into consideration. Or, on the other
hand, itewill be for Mr. Gladstone to persuade the
House that Mr. Bright speaks for himself, that the
Government does not share his views, and that the

tendency of their proposition is opposed to the rea-
lisation of his democratic aspirations. In effect,
Ministers must be sensible that any measure they