340 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
reiterations of the weaker will give confirmation to 
the arguments of the more powerful advocate; and 
if several of these, taking up different departments 
of science,—each in their own walk,—arrive by 
different inferences at the same conclusions, we 
may safely believe that there is much of truth in 
the result. It may be said, indeed, by those who 
yet concur in the sentiments here expressed, that 
there is little need of any further discussion on the 
state of science in Britain, seeing it has already 
been animadverted upon, “ more in sorrow than in 
anger,” by such men as Sir H. Davy, Sir J. Her- 
schel, Professor Babbage*, and Sir James South +; 
and further, by a writer no less accomplished than 
eloquent, in a Journal { devoted to the political 
interests of the court or conservative party, and 
which would not have been the organ for casting 
imputations upon the government, except under 
strong and peculiar circumstances. With such a 
mass of evidence before those who have the power 
of remedying the evils complained of, it may be 
said, that to reiterate these complaints is alike 
tedious and unprofitable, seeing that they are al- 
ready well known. But the question more pro- 
perly is this: Have they been redressed? have 
they made such an impression as they ought to 
make? have any effectual measures been taken 

* Reflections on the Decline of Science in England. London, 
1830. , 
+ Charges against the President and Councils of the Royal 
Society. London, 1830. 
¢ On the Decline of Science in England. Quarterly Review, 
Oct. 1830. 
