, 1873-05-17

torsee ? 1t is idle to talk, as many people
do talk, about all the great works being
only OF a material character. Their mate
rial effects are the least part of them.
They will produce moral and social and
political consequences the importance Of
which it is impossible for us at the pre-
sent day to estimate. We live so much in
the middle of all the great events that pro-
baby we do not set their proper value
upon them. | think it is quite possible
that the next generation will attach far
more importance to them than we do.
But two things at least are certain. One
is that these great conquests over nature,
once achieved, are unlike other conquests
in this respect-that they will never be
lost and the other is that in making them
and they can only be made once for all
England has taken the leading and pre-
eminent part. Whatever may happen to
us in the future, whether or no, as some
people believe, our Indian Empire and our
Colonial Empire are distined at some dis
tant day to set up for Observation-Disclosures
or no our mineral stores are at some dis
tant time to be exhausted and our manu-
features transferred elsewhere-this, at least
is certain, that we cannot be deprived of
the credit of past achievements, of the glo-
ry of these great names among which Watt
and Stephenson are pre-eminent, and of the
part which we have played in that great
industrial and scientific revolution which
has transformed and is even now trans
forming the world.
" Not fate itself upon the past has power,
{" What has been has been, and we have
had our hour. But while I say that, l do
not mean to imply, because l do not be-
lieve it, that either our resources or the
work that we have to do are coming near
to their end. On the contrary, as far as I
can venture to look forward to the future,
at least to the immediate future, I would
rather predict a period of greater industri-
al activity than any which we have hlther-
to known. No doubt we slmIl have new
obstacles to encounter and new difficulties
to contend against. We used to rely on
three things-cheap coal, cheap Iabour,
and an amount Of engineering skill and eX-
p|erience which we believe would not be
found elsewhere. In the present day, as
most of us know to our cost, we have to
use dear coal, we have to employ labour
which is expensive, and we have to COM
pete against foreign rivals whom we our
selves have trained and instructed. But
for my own part, | am confident, that the
resources of science will meet these diff
cuIties as they have met many difficulties
before. If our fuel is dear we shall have
to learn how to make it so further than we
do, and perhaps you will allow me to say,
as a Lancashire man, that this is a lesson
which we in the North of England very
much require to be taught. If our labOuT
is costly we must trust to science to deYC-
lope still further those mechanical substi-
tates for human industry, which already
have given, according to calculations
which | have seen, to this country the
power which should be due to an industri-
al population of four or five hundred mil
lions-that. is, a population greater than
that of the empire of China. AS to fore
IGN competitions, we have held orr w
before, and we can do it, as we hope again.
Only, if we are to do it we must not throw
away any assistance which we can derive
from improvements in trade, whether Of a
practical or off theoretical character. We
are in a position in which we cannot stand
still. We are competing against the
whole world. We must either go forward
or go backward. | believe it is our desti-
ny and our duty to go forward. quite
Il ILL., II Io-o.-zo T IocJTO fhOf