Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume III Part 1

The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley.

Volume 3.

by Leonard Huxley.

CHAPTER 3.1.

1887.

[The first half of 1887, like that of the preceding year, was chequered by constant returns of ill-health.] "As one gets older," [he writes in a New Year's letter to Sir J. Donnelly, "hopes for oneself get more moderate, and I shall be content if next year is no worse than the last. Blessed are the poor in spirit!" [The good effects of the visit to Arolla had not outlasted the winter, and from the end of February he was obliged to alternate between London and the Isle of Wight.

Nevertheless, he managed to attend to a good deal of business in the intervals between his periodic flights to the country, for he continued to serve on the Royal Society Council, to do some of the examining work at South Kensington, and to fight for the establishment of adequate Technical Education in England. He attended the Senate and various committees of the London University and of the Marine Biological a.s.sociation.

Several letters refer to the proposal--it was the Jubilee year--to commemorate the occasion by the establishment of the Imperial Inst.i.tute. To this he gladly gave his support; not indeed to the merely social side; but in the opportunity of organising the practical applications of science to industry he saw the key to success in the industrial war of the future. Seconding the resolution proposed by Lord Rothschild at the Mansion House meeting on January 12, he spoke of the relation of industry to science--the two great developments of this century. Formerly practical men looked askance at science, "but within the last thirty years, more particularly," continues the report in "Nature" (volume 33 page 265) "that state of things had entirely changed. There began in the first place a slight flirtation between science and industry, and that flirtation had grown into an intimacy, he must almost say courtship, until those who watched the signs of the times saw that it was high time that the young people married and set up an establishment for themselves. This great scheme, from his point of view, was the public and ceremonial marriage of science and industry."

Proceeding to speak of the contrast between militarism and industrialism, he asked whether, after all, modern industry was not war under the forms of peace. The difference was the difference between modern and ancient war, consisting in the use of scientific weapons, of organisation and information. The country, he concluded, had dropped astern in the race for want of special education which was obtained elsewhere by the artisan. The only possible chance for keeping the industry of England at the head of the world was through organisation.

Writing on January 18, to Mr. Herbert Spencer, who had sent him some proofs of his Autobiography to look through, he says:--]

I see that your proofs have been in my hands longer than I thought for.

But you may have seen that I have been "starring" at the Mansion House.

This was not exactly one of those bits of over-easiness to pressure with which you reproach me--but the resultant of a composition of pressures, one of which was the conviction that the "Inst.i.tute" might be made into something very useful and greatly wanted--if only the projectors could be made to believe that they had always intended to do that which your humble servant wants done--that is the establishment of a sort of Royal Society for the improvement of industrial knowledge and an industrial university--by voluntary a.s.sociation.

I hope my virtue may be its own reward. For except being knocked up for a day or two by the unwonted effort, I doubt whether there will be any other. The thing has fallen flat as a pancake, and I greatly doubt whether any good will come of it. Except a fine in the shape of a subscription, I hope to escape further punishment for my efforts to be of use.

[However, this was only the beginning of his campaign.

On January 27, a letter from him appeared in the "Times," guarding against a wrong interpretation of his speech, in the general uncertainty as to the intentions of the proposers of the scheme.]

I had no intention [he writes] of expressing any enthusiasm on behalf of the establishment of a vast permanent bazaar. I am not competent to estimate the real utility of these great shows. What I do see very clearly is that they involve difficulties of site, huge working expenses, the potentiality of endless squabbles, and apparently the cheapening of knighthood.

[As for the site proposed at South Kensington,] "the arguments used in its favour in the report would be conclusive if the dry light of reason were the sole guide of human action." [But it would alienate other powerful and wealthy bodies, which were interested in the Central Inst.i.tute of the City and Guilds Technical Inst.i.tute,] "which looks so portly outside and is so very much starved inside."

[He wrote again to the "Times" on March 21:--]

The Central Inst.i.tute is undoubtedly a splendid monument of the munificence of the city. But munificence without method may arrive at results indistinguishably similar to those of stinginess. I have been blamed for saying that the Central Inst.i.tute is "starved." Yet a man who has only half as much food as he needs is indubitably starved, even though his short rations consist of ortolans and are served upon gold plate.

[Only half the plan of operations as drawn up by the Committee was, or could be, carried out on existing funds.

The later part of his letter was printed by the Committee as defining the functions of the new Inst.i.tute:--]

That with which I did intend to express my strong sympathy was the intention which I thought I discerned to establish something which should play the same part in regard to the advancement of industrial knowledge which has been played in regard to science and learning in general, in these realms, by the Royal Society and the Universities...I pictured the Imperial Inst.i.tute to myself as a house of call for all those who are concerned in the advancement of industry; as a place in which the home-keeping industrial could find out all he wants to know about colonial industry and the colonist about home industry; as a sort of neutral ground on which the capitalist and the artisan would be equally welcome; as a centre of intercommunication in which they might enter into friendly discussion of the problems at issue between them, and, perchance, arrive at a friendly solution of them. I imagined it a place in which the fullest stores of industrial knowledge would be made accessible to the public; in which the higher questions of commerce and industry would be systematically studied and elucidated; and where, as in an industrial university, the whole technical education of the country might find its centre and crown. If I earnestly desire to see such an inst.i.tution created, it is not because I think that or anything else will put an end to pauperism and want--as somebody has absurdly suggested,--but because I believe it will supply a foundation for that scientific organisation of our industries which the changed conditions of the times render indispensable to their prosperity. I do not think I am far wrong in a.s.suming that we are entering, indeed, have already entered, upon the most serious struggle for existence to which this country has ever been committed. The latter years of the century promise to see us embarked in an industrial war of far more serious import than the military wars of its opening years. On the east, the most systematically instructed and best-informed people in Europe are our compet.i.tors; on the west, an energetic offshoot of our own stock, grown bigger than its parent, enters upon the struggle possessed of natural resources to which we can make no pretension, and with every prospect of soon possessing that cheap labour by which they may be effectually utilised. Many circ.u.mstances tend to justify the hope that we may hold our own if we are careful to "organise victory." But to those who reflect seriously on the prospects of the population of Lancashire and Yorkshire--should the time ever arrive when the goods which are produced by their labour and their skill are to be had cheaper elsewhere--to those who remember the cotton famine and reflect how much worse a customer famine would be, the situation appears very grave.

[On February 19 and 22, he wrote again to the "Times" declaring against the South Kensington site. It was too far from the heart of commercial organisation in the city, and the city people were preparing to found a similar inst.i.tution of their own. He therefore wished to prevent the Imperial Inst.i.tute from becoming a weak and unworthy memorial of the reign.

A final letter to the "Times" on March 21, was evoked by the fact that Lord Hartington, in giving away the prizes at the Polytechnic Y.M.C.A., had adopted Huxley's position as defined in his speech, and declared that science ought to be aided on precisely the same grounds on which we aid the army and navy.

In this letter he asks, how do we stand prepared for the task thus imperatively set us? We have the machinery for providing instruction and information, and for catching capable men, but both in a disjointed condition]--"all mere torsos--fine, but fragmentary." "The ladder from the School Board to the Universities, about which I dreamed dreams many years ago, has not yet acquired much more substantiality than the ladder of Jacob's vision," [but the Science and Art Department, the Normal School of Science, and the Central Inst.i.tute only want the means to carry out the recommendations already made by impartial and independent authority.] "Economy does not lie in sparing money, but in spending it wisely."

[He concluded with an appeal to Lord Hartington to take up this task of organising industrial education and bring it to a happy issue.

A proposal was also made to the Royal Society to co-operate, and Sir M.

Foster writes on February 19: "We have appointed a Committee to consider and draw up a draft reply with a view of the Royal Society following up your letter."

To this Huxley replied on the 22nd:--]

...My opinion is that the Royal Society has no right to spend its money or pledge its credit for any but scientific objects, and that we have nothing to do with sending round the hat for other purposes.

The project of the Inst.i.tute Committee as it stands connected with the South Kensington site--is condemned by all the city people and will receive none but the most grudging support from them. They are going to set up what will be practically an Inst.i.tute of their own in the city.

The thing is already a failure. I daresay it will go on and be varnished into a simulacrum of success--to become eventually a ghost like the Albert Hall or revive as a tea garden.

[The following letter also touches upon the function of the Inst.i.tute from the commercial side:--]

4 Marlborough Place, February 20, 1887.

My dear Donnelly,

Mr. Law's suggestion gives admirable definition to the notions that were floating in my mind when I wrote in my letter to the "Times", that I imagined the Inst.i.tute would be a "place in which the fullest stores of industrial knowledge would be made accessible to the public." A man of business who wants to know anything about the prospects of trade with, say, Boorioboola-Gha (vide Bleak House) ought to be able to look into the Inst.i.tute and find there somebody who will at once fish out for him among the doc.u.ments in the place all that is known about Boorioboola.

But a Commercial Intelligence Department is not all that is wanted, vide valuable letter aforesaid.

I hope your appet.i.te for the breakfast was none the worse for last night's doings--mine was rather improved, but I am dog-tired.

Ever yours very faithfully,

T.H. Huxley.

I return Miss --'s note. she evidently thinks my cage is labelled "These animals bite."

[Later in the year, the following letters show him continuing the campaign. But an attack of pleurisy, which began the very day of the Jubilee, prevented him from coming to speak at a meeting upon Technical Education. In the autumn, however, he spoke on the subject at Manchester, and had the satisfaction of seeing the city "go solid," as he expressed it, for technical education. The circ.u.mstances of this visit are given later.]

4 Marlborough Place, May 1, 1887.

My dear Roscoe,

I met Lord Hartington at the Academy Dinner last night and took the opportunity of urging upon him the importance of following up his technical education speech. He told me he had been in communication with you about the matter, and he seemed to me to be very well disposed to your plans.

I may go on crying in the wilderness until I am hoa.r.s.e, with no result, but if he and you and Mundella will take it up, something may be done.

Ever yours very faithfully,

T.H. Huxley.

4 Marlborough Place, June 28, 1887.

My dear Roscoe,