TECHNICAL  AND   COMMERCIAL  EDUCATION.
cing development of our industry, i. e. since the «sixties*. Not to mention the railway schools, which we shall have occasion to mention in the Chapter on ways of communication, to this period belong the foundation of the Moscow Komisaroff Technical School, the Alexander School in Cherepovets, the transformation of the Lodz Real School (modern gymnasium) into a higher trades school, etc. These efforts on the part of both private persons and of societies to found technical schools called forth in 186? the enactment of the first general rules for their opening. A further step was taken in 1872, when in real schools (modern gymnasiums) supplementary special classes began to be organized. These were of a general character, mechanico-technical and chemico-technical. In the same year it was decided to open trades classes in the two class and one-class rural ,district, and town schools. The latter now exist in connexion with 464 schools, and reckon about 11,00a pupils. In this way special technical education was placed in relation with general education. But the special divisions of the real schools did not justify the hopes placed upon them, and the Government resolved to pass over to the independent system of technical schools. Already in 1882, when M. Boongue was Minister of Finance, an order was issued for schools attached to the Imperial Russian Technical Society, which was authorized to open schools in factories and works, and in places with & working population; while six years later a general normal plan was drawn up for technical schools, whether intermediate, lower, or trades. Besides this schools were proposed   for  trades  apprentices,   to   prepare   boys   for
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