REPORT OP THE COUNCIL. XXlJt 



2. The Council have also directed printed copies to be laid on the table 

 of a Report which has been presented by the Parliamentary Committee of 

 the British Association, on the question, " Whether any measures could be 

 adopted by Government or Parliament to improve the position of Science or 

 its Cultivators in this Country*." 



The suggestions which this Report contains are numerous and important. 

 Some of them, such as those touching alterations in the system of education 

 in our Universities, and an increased encouragement to the formation of 

 museums and public libraries, seem to be already in a fair way of being in a 

 greater or less degree adopted. The suggestion that the principal Scientific 

 Societies shall be located in London at the public expense in some one cen- 

 tral building, is, as there is good reason to hope, in a fair train of being 

 realized, under the most favourable circumstances, within the walls of Bur- 

 lington House in Piccadilly ; and such a result would be of the highest im- 

 portance, not only for the convenience which such a juxtaposition would 

 afford to members for the pursuit of their researches, but perhaps still more 

 from the advantage of presenting the various scientific bodies, and in their 

 persons science itself, to the public eye in a conspicuous, honourable, and 

 influential position. 



Other suggestions of the Parliamentary Committee, such as those touching 

 the support by the State of lecturers on science in the provincial towns, — 

 touching the question of rewai'ds to be given in various shapes to the culti- 

 vators of science, and more especially that of the creation of a Board of 

 Science which shall advise the Government in connexion with it, have yet 

 to receive that sanction from public opinion, and more especially from the 

 opinion of men of science themselves, which more extended discussion can 

 alone elicit, and without which they could not be pressed upon Government 

 or Parliament with any prospect of success. For such a discussion perhaps 

 the present meeting may present a fitting opportunity. 



3. In reference to the recommendation of the General Committee, that the 

 shipowners and other gentlemen interested in navigation at Liverpool should 

 form a Committee of their own body for the purpose of inquiring into the 

 best means of obviating the inconveniences and losses occasioned by the 

 errors of the compasses produced by the iron employed in the construction 

 and equipment of ships, the Council have had the satisfaction of learning 

 that a Committee has been formed and has entered upon the inquiry. 



4f. The Council have added to the list of Corresponding Members of the 

 British Association the names of Monsieur Leon Foucault and the Abbe 

 Moigno. 



5. The Council have been informed that a Deputation will attend at Glas- 

 gow for the purpose of conveying an invitation to the British Association to 

 hold its meeting in 1856 at Cheltenham. 



Letters have also been received, and will be laid before the General Com- 

 mittee, from the Board of Trinity College in Dublin, from the Royal Irish 

 Academy, and from the Royal Dublin Society, inviting the British Associa- 

 tion to hold its meeting in 1 857 at Dublin. 



* See p. xlviii. 



