Abstract
A LARGE number of ladies and gentlemen assembled on Tuesday in Cowper Street to witness the laying of the foundation-stone of the Finsbury Technical College which it has lately been resolved to establish by the City and Guilds of London Institute, by His Royal Highness Prince Leopold. According to the report of the Council of the Institute to the Governors, the projected building is estimated to cost 20,382l., exclusive of the professional charges, fittings, and other incidental expenses, which will amount to some 5000l. In the plans ample accommodation is provided for instruction in the application of physics, chemistry, and mechanics to the various industries. The building will contain thirty-two rooms, including a large laboratory, two lecture theatres, class, drawing, private, and engine rooms, workshops, and clerks' offices. Lord Selborne, in welcoming the Prince, after noting the progress of science as applied to arts and manufactures in this and other countries, said that in the race of competition the prize must in the end belong to those who best knew how to build the superstructure of arts and manufacture on their handicrafts with a sound foundation of scientific knowledge. The ceremony of laying the stone was gone through by Prince Leopold, who in the course of his remarks said that the institution has proclaimed its determination to enter into generous rivalry with other countries in those branches of trade and commerce in which, one must needs confess, our native industries have of late years not taken that position which we as Englishmen would wish them to occupy. We are beginning to realise that a thorough and liberal system of education must be placed within the reach of the British artisan in order to enable him to hold his own against foreign competition. Mr. Mundella said that by instituting this college they were taking the same step in applying science to industries which had been taken in applying arts to manufactures at South Kensington. Among the articles deposited in the cavity of the foundation-stone was a copy of NATURE.
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University and Educational Intelligence . Nature 24, 45 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/024045b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/024045b0