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2. The Finsbury Technical College : This college, founded by the Institute, is in its character and aims intermediate between the Central College on the one hand and the " Polytechnics " and trades schools on the other. It comprises five sections : (1) Civil engineering and applied mathematics; (2) electricity and applied, physics; (3) manufacturing and technical chemistry; (4) applied art; (5) building trades. The workshop teachers are skilled workmen ; the teachers of trades classes are old foremen. There is a day-school with about two hundred pupils, from about fifteen years of age to nineteen, for the most part the sons of working-men. For the full course, which extends over one, two, or three years, the annual fee is £15 ; a few of the pupils, taking only a partial course, pay less. The accommodation is limited, and preference is given to boys who have already been a year or two at work, but others are admitted to prepare for the College or for work. The hours are from 9.30 to 5, with an hour and a quarter for dinner. Promotion to a higher class depends on an annual examination. Scholarships to this school have been founded : eight of £30, for two years ; one of £10, for one year ; six conferring the right to free admission only. In the evening school there are one thousand students, most of them apprentices, workmen, or foremen. The age of the majority is between twenty and twenty-five, the extreme ages being fourteen and forty. The teaching in the day-time is more theoretical and " industrial," and that of the night-school is more practical and " professional," but in general the teachers are the same, and the same appliances are available for both. The fees vary from 6s. to 155., except that they are a little higher for the art classes. Apprentices under twenty pay half-fees. In 1893-94 the nightschool had 1,091 pupils, and of these 283 were apprentices paying the reduced fee. The annual cost of maintaining Finsbury College is £9,346; the fees amount to £3,304 ; the balance, £6,402, is provided by the Institute. 3. The South London School of Decorative Art was founded by private persons in 1879, and handed over by them to the Institute. There are classes in moulding, drawing and painting from nature, design, decorative house-painting, and machine drawing. The teachers are men who have been practical workers in the several branches, and they have a free hand in adapting the instruction to the individual needs and wishes of the students. At an exhibition of the work done at this school, and at other schools belonging to the Institute in 1894, there were designs for glass-windows, wood engravings for the illustration of books, designs for Christmas-cards and chromo-lithographs, models of decorations of rooms and furniture, &c. The school has been very successful, but owing to the increasing facilities offered at cheaper rates by newer institutions, such as the Polytechnics, and to the crisis through which some trades are passing, the attendance is not now growing larger. It stands now at 135. The expenses are £1,165; the fees (ss. a quarter for each class) amount to £109; the balance, £1,056, is the cost to the Institute. 4. The Cordwainers Trade School has been established by an agreement between the Institute, two of the city guilds, and the masters in the boot-and-shoe trade, to give instruction to apprentices, workmen, and intending superintendents of work in the leather industries. Programme : (a.) General and theoretic classes : Anatomy and physiology of the foot; the feet and their characteristics ; expenses; measures; raw materials; commercial geography ; drawing ; arithmetic; book-keeping, &c. (b.) Practical classes: A series of eleven different courses embraces all the many different operations required in shoemaking. The classes meet in the evening between eight and ten. The fees are very low. There are about two hundred pupils, and eight instructors. It is hard to find men who have sufficient experience in their trade, and at the same time, the method and precision essential to good teaching. There is a library of books bearing on the trade; a reading-room, supplied for the most part by the editors, with sixteen trade periodicals; and a parlour and refreshment-room. The expenses amount to £1,082 ; the receipts are £550 from the Institute ; £396 from three corporations ; £70 from fees and sale of work. The Master's Society formerly gave considerable aid, but has ceased to do so, having become apathetic in the matter. Many manufacturers lend machines for use in the workrooms, and supply materials. 3. Finances. The income of the Institute in 1895 was £33,975; subscriptions and donations, £23,768; examination-fees and sundries, £10,207 ; the expenditure, £30,430. On the whole, about onethird of the cost of the schools and colleges is covered by fees, and the corporations provide twothirds. The managers declare that the money expended by the Institute is not to be regarded as alms ; their aim is the development of the national industries. Since its foundation the Institute has received donations from corporations and individual benefactors amounting to £453,436. The Goldsmith's Company also has given £78,964. The smallest donation from any one company is £10, and the largest from a single person is £300. Chapter ll.—The National Association. The Boyal Commission in 1884 revealed to the nation the want of technical education and the gaps that had to be filled. The National Association was then formed, and by its timely publication of pamphlets and the zeal of its members aroused the people to a sense of the urgency of that need. It proceeded to elaborate in draft Bills a scheme of legislative encouragement. Members of the Institute, such as the Duke of Devonshire (president), Sir A. Boscoe (secretary), and Mr. Acland, made the first proposals before Parliament, defended them with much energy, and succeeded in getting them carried by an overwhelming majority. Then the association began to disseminate the knowledge of the new legislation, and to urge the local authorities to make use of their new powers. Next, it supplied these inexperienced bodies with invaluable advice, which has enabled them to avoid many costly and useless experiments. Further, the influence of the association has been most successfully employed in promoting the foundation of a very large number of polytechnic institutions and trade schools, and in stimulating the interest necessary to the generous flows of subscriptions and donations. One might be inclined to suppose that, since the association