178 MEETING OF CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES' 



has branches even in our Colonies, already has a membership of 



630,000, and its income is nearly ;^20,ooo a year. A British 



Science League of 500,000 with a sixpenny subscription would 



give us £"12,000 a year, quite enough to begin with." 



It was suggested that in the formation of such an organisation 



the Corresponding Societies might take an active part. 



" The present moment [said the President] was very opportune for the 



formation of such a body, because you have throughout the kingdom, from 



Land's End to John O' Groats, a great number of councils — county councils, city 



councils, town councils, district councils, parish councils, and goodness knows 



what — ami it struck me, if we could manage somehow to influence the debates of 



these bodies, it would be very much better for science, and ultimately, I think, 



ver\- much to the benefit of the Association. I am a very himible person, a very 



hardworking man, and I have been working for the last forty years to try in my 



little way to get adopted some better views of science in this country. Well, I 



am a miserable failure, and all the people .vho have made similar endeavours are 



like me— miserable failures. We have done absolutely nothing. So far as my 



experience goes, all the attempts made by individuals during the last forty years — 



I can go back forty years in my own work — have been practically of no effect, 



and that was the reason why I thought it was possible that by some such 



organisation as I sketehed last night we miglit do something better. That 



' something better ' is, to put it plainly, looking after votes. Unless we can 



control votes in the House of Commons and in the councils throughout the 



country, science will not be any better. If we can control votes s:ience will be 



benefited ; and scientific bodies working with a goal in view from one end of the 



country to the other would be a most important factor in our future national life. 



Of that I am perfectly convinced; but I am only an individual, and therefore I 



asked permission to come and listen to you, gentlemen, who have had more 



experience than I can claim to have, representing as you do different societies, 



and familiar with the conditions in your own localities, and therefore able to say 



whether it is possible to catch votes, to influence councils, and gradually to infuse 



a scientific spirit into the county councils, the town councils, and the district 



councils of England. ' ' 



These remarks, coming from so high an authority as the 

 President of the Association, were felt to have much weight, but 

 the discussion revealed, as might be expected, certain difficulties 

 of a practical character, and some divergence of opinion as to the 

 objects which should engage the attention of the local societies. 



Professor E. H. Griffith, of Cardiff", in an excellent speech, 

 doubted the expediency of starting with the avowed object of 

 catching votes, and rather dwelt on the necessity of bringing 

 home to the working-man the value of science in its industrial 

 applications. 



" Let us appeal," he said, '' to the ' man in the street ' on the 

 facts which must convince him that science is of abiding benefit 



