WANT OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.

West Coast Times, Issue 652, 26 October 1867, Page 3

WANT OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.

(prom tiie examiner.)

Dr. Lyon Playfair's statement of the opinion entertained generally amongst the jurors of the Paris Exhibition as to England's loss of pace in manufacturing improvement since 1862 is certain to attract the attention to which it is entitled. Reduced to writing at the request of Lord Taunton, and given publicity at the instance of Earl Granville, it is calculated to awaken feelings of solicitude, if not of apprehension, in all who wisely take thought for the morrow regarding our national industry. We have never shared the unreasoning alarm at the uprise of competition in the iron and cotton trades, grounded on the supposed subjection of those branches of enterprise in England to the ill effects of disputes between workmen and employers. Whatever the consequences of such disputes may be, we know that they are not confined to our own couniry ; and we arc full of hope that calm and fair discussion — of which we have lately had more on this subject than formerly — will tend materially to reconcile conflicting views, and to mitigate materially, if ifc cannot altogether remove, the feelings of distrust and antagonism which all must deplore. But we cannot disguise from ourselves the importance of the view entertained by Dr. Playfair on another psrt of the question," which happily is involved in no web of social controversy. The comparison of dramatic position and intensity to anything that Victor Hugo ever wrote-, while it bears upon its face the light glow of a genial humour such as one nowhere finds in Shakespeare ?" Do we not hear Df Mr Frill that his "latest poem is Dantesque in its grandeur, and as far above the petty allegory of Spenser as as Schlegel is above Lindley Murray ? Do we not hear of Mr Mall "that his latest picture has a lusciousness of colour of which Titian never dreamed, with a harmony of conception worthy of Raphal" ? and is it not singular that Cuff, Frill, and Mall are, nevertheless, of that unhappy race whom neither gods nor men will tolerate? Let us be thankful we have other means of ascertaining the true relative position of our artists and the value of their work.

It was lately our good fortune to become acquainted with the mechanism of the system. It i 3 simple. To the person who is thought worthy to write his autobiography, a printed schedule is sent, in' order to avoid his overlooking important details with that carelessness which is supposed to be characteristic of men of genius. The publisher's printed slip is the Providence which guides the steps of these intellectually drunken persons ; and they are kept from straying by the hardest and sharpest lines. The aspirant for fame begins by stating his age, and then devolves upon a minute account of his own and his father's circumstances, which will probably be highly interesting to a certain class of readers We must acknowledge, however, having looked at previous editions of the manual of contemporary biography which these slips have formed, and having found there only a moderate and decent use made of such questionable material. The last item which the autobiographer has to " fill in" is the most important. The direction on the margin is, " State claims to distinction." Here the paternalhandguidesusnolongcr. We are cast adrift upon a sea of speculation, without rudder, without compass. What are our claims to distinction? Shall we say "Never wrote Proverbial Philosophy," or, " Have discovered the politics of the " Times," or, " Had a house saved from fire by the Prince of Wales," or, " Able to believe that the House of Commons hates bribery," or what ? Is there a man alive who does not deem himself possessed of some one claim to consideiable distinction ? Is it the business of the editor to compare " claims to distinction,' 1 and publish those which he considers the strongest ? If so, why should not these slips be sent to every person in the country, to make the competition fair? Or is the editor assured of the " claims" of certain people, and desirous that they should phrase them according to their own pleasure? The schedule we were privileged to look upon was submitted to an English author whose name is pretty well known in his own country, and whose works have been reprinted and widely read in America. Could the modesty of an editor go further than to allow this man to state his own claims — to build his own pedestal, and erect his own statue? When we turn from methods to results we are struck with admiration before the great temple of English celebrities which this volume of contemporary biography opens up to us. England is no longer a land of Philistinism; it is a land of poets and painters. It is we, purblind critics, looking despairingly around for tangible products and failing to see the great possibilities lying dormant in these countless bosoms, who have degraded the land of our birth by ignoring its abundant harvest of_ prospective genius. Heavens ! what masses, what bushels, of great men lie scattered here ! We have the birth, parentage, education, and. pursuits of innumerable great ones whose very name was unknown to us. Their " claims to distinction " may be sometimes rather obscure ; but of the date of their nativity there is no doubt. Fiiture historians, seizing this book with avidity, will lift up hands of wonder and exclaim that before the profuse intellectual riches of the Victorian age the Augustan and Elizabethan ages must pale their inefectnal fires. There is no more room now for a great soul to be like a star, and dwell apart. Celebrities jostle each other on the pavement ; heroes fdl every coffee-house in Fleet street. In the various analyses published of the 658 persons whom Mr Brightproposed to catch in a net as they went tJirough Temple Bar, according to these authentic histories of individual lives, how could the proportion be less P It is a fact which the mind delights to dwell upon. We need no longer wince to hear of the education of Prussia, of the artistic taste of France, of the intellectual appreciation of America. Education is only a means ; artistic taste is less than art ; the Americans are welcome to appreciate what we write for them. We know of a small volume which we should like to send to the Paris Exhibition — where the countries of Europe are scrambling j for a petty superiority in the making of washing machines and fireirons — in order to show that England is no longer a nation of shopkeepers, but a nation of great men.