think I do not err in saying that if science were made the foundation of
education, instead of being, at most, stuck on as cornice to the
edifice, this state of things could not exist.

In advocating the introduction of physical science as a leading element
in education, I by no means refer only to the higher schools. On the
contrary, I believe that such a change is even more imperatively called
for in those primary schools, in which the children of the poor are
expected to turn to the best account the little time they can devote to
the acquisition of knowledge. A great step in this direction has already
been made by the establishment of science-classes under the Department
of Science and Art,--a measure which came into existence unnoticed, but
which will, I believe, turn out to be of more importance to the welfare
of the people, than many political changes, over which the noise of
battle has rent the air.

Under the regulations to which I refer, a schoolmaster can set up a
class in one or more branches of science; his pupils will be examined,
and the State will pay him, at a certain rate, for all who succeed in
passing. I have acted as an examiner under this system from the
beginning of its establishment, and this year I expect to have not fewer
than a couple of thousand sets of answers to questions in Physiology,
mainly from young people of the artisan class, who have been taught in
the schools which are now scattered all over Great Britain and Ireland.
Some of my colleagues, who have to deal with subjects such as Geometry,
for which the present teaching power is better organized, I understand
are likely to have three or four times as many papers. So far as my own
subjects are concerned, I can undertake to say that a great deal of the
teaching, the results of which are before me in these examinations, is
very sound and good; and I think it is in the power of the examiners,