XXXVili REPORT—1857. 
Report of the Parliamentary Committee to the Meeting of the British 
Association at Dublin, in August 1857. 
The Parliamentary Committee have the honour to report as follows :— 
The question discussed in the Report of your Committee, addressed to 
the Meeting held at Glasgow in 1855, viz. “ Whether any measures could be 
adopted by the Government or Parliament that would improve the position 
of Science and its cultivators,” has been much considered by the Council of 
the Royal Society. They assembled for this purpose in the autumn of last 
year, and were then assisted in their deliberations by the replies received to 
the circular of the 20th August last, agreed upon at Cheltenham, and issued 
to all Members of the General Committee. 
Of these replies an able digest has been prepared by Professor Phillips, 
who was also a Member of the Sub-Committee appointed on behalf of the 
Royal Society to consider this important subject. 
The Council of the Royal Society, at their meeting held on the 15th of 
January last, passed twelve Resolutions, which may be considered as 
embodying their reply to the question above stated, and your Committee 
are gratified by observing that most of the recommendations adopted in the 
Glasgow Report have, in substance, received the sanction of the official 
representatives of the most ancient and venerable of our Scientific Institu- 
tions. At that meeting of the Council a resolution was passed, that the 
President be authorized to communicate the twelve Resolutions to your 
Committee, with a request that the same might obtain such support from our 
Members as they might consider them entitled to receive. The Council of 
the Royal Society likewise resolved that a copy of their Resolutions should 
be forwarded to Lord Palmerston by their President, who by letter, bearing 
date the 28th of January, transmitted the same accordingly. 
The consideration of the steps proper to be taken in pursuance of the 
above request addressed to your Committee, formed the chief subject of our 
deliberations during the current year. We determined that it was not expe- 
dient at present to take any steps beyond moving for the production of the 
letter of the President of the Royal Society of the 28th of January above- 
mentioned, with the copy of the twelve Resolutions enclosed therein; and 
this has been done accordingly, in the House of Lords by Lord Burlington, 
and in the House of Commons by Mr. Robert Stephenson. 
We were much influenced in this determination by the consideration of 
the peculiar circumstances under which Parliament met, which have much 
abridged the time at their disposal for the discussion of any measures of 
importance, and by the further consideration that it might not be expedient 
to precipitate a decision on matters which were new to the general public. 
Again, though the Resolutions in question have received the general 
approval of your Council, at a meeting held on the 16th January last, we 
thought it right that the Committee of Recommendations should have an 
opportunity of expressing their opinion upon them before any steps were 
taken to urge their adoption on the Government or Parliament. 
By the retirement of Mr. Heywood from Parliament, your Committee have 
been deprived of the services of one of the most zealous of their members. 
Mr. Heywood was not only most constant in his attendance, but no one had 
the objects for which your Committee was constituted more sincerely at 
heart. 
The Duke of Argyll and the Earl of Rosse must, in pursuance of the 
resolution adopted at Liverpool in 1854, be deemed to have vacated their 
seats in your Committee, but we recommend that they should be re-elected. 
ee a ae 
