IX ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 255 



and give their ability to serve tlieir kind full 

 play. 



I rejoice to observe that the encouragement of 

 research occupies so prominent a place in your 

 official documents, and in the wise and liberal in- 

 augural address of your president. This subject 

 of the encouragement, or, as it is sometimes called, 

 the endowment of research, has of late years 

 greatly exercised the minds of men in England. 

 It was one of the main topics of discussion by 

 the members of the Royal Commission of whom 

 I was one, and who not long since issued their 

 report, after five years' labour. Many seem to 

 think that this question is mainly one of money; 

 that you can go into the market and buy research, 

 and that supply will follow demand, as in the 

 ordinary course of commerce. This view does not 

 commend itself to my mind. I know of no more 

 difficult practical problem than the discovery of a 

 method of encouraging and supporting the origi- 

 nal investigator without opening the door to nepo- 

 tism and jobbery. My own conviction is admirably 

 summed up in the passage of your president's 

 address, " that the best investigators are usually 

 those who have also the responsibilities of instruc- 

 tion, gaining thus the incitement of colleagues, 

 the encouragement of pupils, and the observation 

 of the public." 



At the commencement of this address I ven- 

 tured to assume that I might, if I thought fit, criti- 



