Birmingham.

Your Memorialists have long felt the necessity of some more extended system of practical and scientific education in England, which should place within the reach of the industrial classes a much higher standard of scientific attainments than they can now ever hope to possess without very ample means.

Your Memorialists are convinced that with greater facilities in elementary scientific education, intimately connected with, and always accompanied by, practical illustrations and manipulations, there would be found as much original genius and talent to develop in the people of this country as in those of the great continental states of Europe; and that such development would greatly facilitate the maintenance and extension of our manufactures and commerce.

The great and rapid strides which locomotion has taken on the Continent, and the constant international communication which is the result, have extended science and mechanical and nrtistical knowledge widely over those nations; and thus one vast school of arts and sciences exists, with its members in constant communication, from which this country is partly excluded from its geographical position.

Some of your Memorialists, in their late visit to Paris, have witnessed the advantages which the rising generation of manufacturers is there enjoying in their educational establishments; and although not favoured by the possession of such vast resources in raw materials, mineral wealth and fuel, as Great Britain has the blessing to enjoy, they have established such colleges as the conservatory of arts and manufactures, and the central school of arts and manufactures, which are especially destined for the instruction of manufacturers and artisans, either entirely free or at a low charge.