Royal Society, 135 



In other countries, however, where the learned professions are nei- 

 ther richly paid nor highly honoured, and where the exclusive cul- 

 tivation of particular branches of literature and science presents the 

 readiest access to the possession of competence and social rank, we 

 find large bodies of men who have no professional engagements 

 whatever to divert them from their literary and scientific labours, 

 which are thus made to constitute the business of their lives. I am 

 fully sensible of the great advantages which other countries possess 

 in these respects above our own, and that it is quite impossible for 

 us to command an equal concentration of attention to the advance- 

 ment of particular branches of science, or to the concerns of a par- 

 ticular Society; still less so when it is considered that those services 

 must with us, be afforded gratuitously, which, in other countries, are 

 remunerated by the State, or are required as part of the duty of a 

 salaried office : — we are not less called upon, however, on this account, 

 to make the best and most efficient use of the means in our power, 

 and the assistance which we cannot command as due from a sense 

 of official or professional obligation, we may receive as rendered 

 from a higher feeling of devotion to the promotion of the general 

 interests of science, and with it of our national fame. 



However much I may lament the want of establishments, in this 

 country, for the exclusive and liberal support of men of learning and 

 of science, and however anxiously I may look forward to the time 

 when our Government and Legislature may take this subject into 

 their most serious consideration, with a view to the remedy of so great 

 an evil, yet I rejoice to observe amongst all ranks of society so zealous 

 and so ardent a feeling in favour of the cultivation of every branch of 

 science, of art, and of literature ; so general and so deep an anxiety, 

 in fact, that our country should advance in the front rank in the 

 rapid march which European nations are making in knowledge and 

 improvement. 



It would be very easy for me to produce evidence of the exist- 

 ence of this spirit in the foundation of literary and other Societies in 

 so many of our provincial towns, and in the active and general sup- 

 port which they receive ; but it is sufficient for my purpose to 

 appeal, for the complete confirmation of the truth of the opinion 

 which I have expressed, to the noble manner in which the British 

 Association has been supported by the eager concurrence of the 

 friends of science from all quarters of the kingdom : and the splen- 

 did reception which has been recently given to this Association by 

 the University of Oxford ; the judicious and well merited honours 

 conferred upon four of its most illustrious Members * ; the eager at- 

 tention which was given to its proceedings by crowds of intelligent 

 and admiring auditors, the great variety and excellence of the Re- 

 ports which were there produced upon the present state and recent 

 history of various branches of philosophy, will constitute a proud 

 epoch in the scientific history of this country, and one which is full 



* Brewster, Brown, Dalton and Faraday, on whom the degree of LL.D. was 

 severally conferred. -* ullii ilOOe 



