as of trivial importance to the nation, as a thing it may properly disregard. Judging from the action taken in other countries it is safe to say that private endowment has not produced more than 10 per cent. of the money actually needed in Britain. Nor can we rightly appeal to local rate-aid alone. It would be unjust to expect certain restricted localities to provide universities which, if we are to go on, must be utilised by the whole Empire. We are driven then to the State. The other civilised States largely endow their universities; Germany, with an aggregate income less than ours, spends roughly £1,000,000 a year on its universities. The University of Berlin alone received more than £168,000 from the State in the year 1891-2. In the United States, in addition to £200,000 a year received from the Government, the States supply £700,000 in the aggregate and private endowment £2,000,000. The University of Tokio receives £130,000 a year from the Government of Japan. These figures derive their chief importance from the fact that these magnificently endowed and State-aided universities are the institutions we are contending with in the production of men to do the nation's work along all the lines of its activities. But the large sums available for the efficient working of the German and American universities are not alone in question. The number of universities in Germany is nearly double that of the British universities. The number of first-class universities in the United States where, as Mr. Choate has told us, education is the chief business of the nation, is nearly four times that of the British universities. Can we Afford to Spend Money on Universities? Britain's great needs at the present moment are brainpower to invigorate our commerce, among other things, and sea-power to guard it, among other things. The State has recently spent £120,000,000 to bring our Navy up to date; it has not yet spent a single million on our universities. Sir Robert Giffen has stated that the yearly income of the people of the United Kingdom may be taken as not less than 1650 millions, and their aggregate expendture a few years ago was not less than £1,400,000,000., including £30,000,000 for education, which is less than 2 per cent of the whole. The amount borne on the estimates for education is about £13,000,000. He writes: "The country should be spending 100 millions, where it now spends thirty, or about 5 per cent. . . . Such sums are not really extravagant. Extensive diffusion of education and scientific knowledge and training are not only essential to the greater efficiency of labour and capital by which the means of living are provided, but they are equally needed for the conduct of life itself, for the health and comfort of the workers.' It cannot be doubted that the expenditure will be quickly remunerative. More efficient workers will produce more. Money so spent is seed from which a harvest can be looked for; the plentifulness of the crop will depend upon the seed and the way it is sown. One of our manufacturers who has been most successful in applying science to industry has stated that if we were now to borrow £10,000,000 for university purposes we should get the money back in the course of one generation a hundred-fold. The recent recognition of the fact that we have too few universities, and that those that we have are inefficient for want of funds, is similar to that awakening which occurred in 1888 regarding the Navy. In both cases we have to correct past mistakes lasting for years, and seeing that university buildings, as well as annual endowments, are required, some special provision should be made for their early erection. The Universities in Relation to Secondary Education. Now that the primary and secondary schools throughout the country are being co-ordinated, the time has arrived for making our universities and university colleges efficient. The teaching connected with the universities must be of the highest, and the chief function of the secondary schools should be to produce students possessing that general training in science and the humanities which will ensure the success of their subsequent careers, either inside or outside a university. A system of leaving certificates and a reduction of fees would at once get rid of the tyranny of merely qualifying or selecting examinations which are the bane of education, and would enable the training of the poorest to be carried to the highest rung of an unbroken ladder. OPENING ADDRESS AT THE INAUGURATION OF THE BRITISH SCIENCE GUILD.* (1905.) My Lord Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,-My duty is to present a very brief report of the action of the organising committee of the Guild, which has led up to the present meeting. The Royal Society permitted the first meeting of the committee to be held in its rooms, in June of last year; officers were appointed and a Memorandum was drawn up, sketching the objects and proposed organisation of the guild, for circulation among those whose sympathy and support were hoped for. The Memorandum was circulated privately in the first instance. The responses received were so extremely satisfactory, that the committee felt justified in their belief that a large number of the most distinguished representatives of every branch of national life and activity were in sympathy with the movement, and eventually the Memorandum was circulated to the members of both Houses of Parliament and the Fellows of the Royal Society, and afterwards to various technical societies, chambers of commerce and similar organisations. Notices were also sent to the Press. At a meeting held in last March, it was resolved to advance beyond the general statement of objects, which was all the organising committee was in a position * At the Mansion House, October 30, 1905, to formulate, and with this view to proceed to the formation of a larger committee, the members of which should be chosen to represent various localities and various interests. In June a circular was issued to the members, giving some account of the proceedings of the organising committee, and defining further the aims of the guild. This published statement of aims has been sent to all invited to this meeting. In the same month it was decided that the inauguration of the Guild should take place in the autumn, and a sub-committee of three was appointed to advise with regard to all necessary arrangements. In July the report of this sub-committee was considered; the list of officers circulated to-day was taken in hand, and, among other matters dealt with, I was requested, my Lord Mayor, to ask you if you would allow the guild to be launched with becoming dignity, by consenting that the inaugural meeting should be held in this historic hall under your presidency. The organising committee is grateful for the consent you so readily accorded. They feel that you have strengthened their hands, and that under such auspices there is a hope, nay a certainty, that the guild may do for British national endeavour in the future what your ancient guilds, each in its special line of action, were founded to do in the long, long past. When my own views as to the importance, nay the burning necessity, of such a movement as this, throughout the land, among all classes, and in touch with all employments, were expressed some time ago, I suggested that it might be brought about by extending the functions of some existing organisation, such for instance as the British Association, but this, I was soon made to see, was to take an entirely too narrow view of the matter; |