It  is  only  recently  that  we  have  heard  of  flexible  bayonets  and-
brittle  swords.  It  may  be  wise  to  turn  a  bayonet  into  a  reaping-
hook,  but  it  is  not  satisfactory  to  find  it  turning  itself  into  one.
Depend  on  it  the  principle  of  laissez  /aire  will  not  justify  adultera-
tion, and  should  not  be  cited  to  condone  trade  frauds.
Should  the  State  be  at  the  expense  of  the  higher  education,  and.
partieularly  of  that  which  is  called  technical  ?  There  is  a  con-
siderable amount  of  fallacies  uttered  about  the  latter  term.  I  hold
that  a  well-regulated  apprenticeship,  such  as  in  practice  I  under-
stand engineers  in  England  have  to  go  through,  is  a  good,  almost
a  perfect,  technical  education.  Such  is  the  system  prevailing,  for
I  have  witnessed  the  process,  in  the  American  technological  colleges^
where  the  teacher,  sometimes  only  a  skilled  workman,  watches  the^
pupils'  efforts,  and  gradually  imparts-  to  him  the  requisite  knack.
Such,  as  I  have  told  you,  was  the  mediaeval  apprenticeship  in  the


ADULTERATION.     TECHNICAL  EDUGATION.         86S-.
r.rt  of  arcihitecture  and  agriculture.  Now  if  everybodyis  to  bfr
taught  this  in  his  degree,  the  State  may,  for  reasons  giveii  above,
be  called  on  to  pay  it.  If  a  few  are  to  have  the  benefit,  the  State
may  perhaps  start  the  in8titu'tion,.as  they  did  at  Boston,  perhaps
pay  part  of  the  management,  but  the  pupils  ought  to  supply  ttie
means  for  its  continuity.  So  with  grants  to  universities.  I  never
could  see  what  claims  the  Scotch  universities  had  on  a  Parlia-
mentary grant.  From  the  Tay  to  the  border,  Scotland  is  as  rich
as  any  part  of  the  United  Kingdom.  The  English  universities,.
