ADDRESS. IxXXi 



flashed ready-made on the astonishment of the world. In chemistry, the lead 

 taken by abstract science in reacting on the arts is manifest and constant ; 

 and in a greater or less degree the same result is appearing in connexion 

 with every branch of physical research. The interest, therefore, of the 

 State, even if it be considered merely in this economic point of view, in the 

 encouragement of abstract science, is obvious and immediate. And there is 

 this additional motive to be i-emembered : the moment any result of science 

 becomes applicable to the arts, the unfailing enterprise of the commercial and 

 manufacturing classes takes it up and exhausts every resource of capital and 

 of skill in giving to that application the largest possible development. But so 

 long as science is still purely abstract, it has often to be prosecuted with 

 slender resources, and specially requires fostering care and a helping hand. 

 But I rejoice to believe that the conviction of this truth is sensibly gaining 

 ground. The foundation of the geological museums both in England and 

 in Scotland, and the carrying out of a complete geological, concurrently with 

 a geographical survey, by public authority and at the public expense, were 

 great steps in the right direction. Another such step was the investment of 

 £1000 annually in aiding experimental research, through the agency of the 

 Royal Society, which undertook the trouble of its special allocation. It is the 

 intention of my noble friend, Lord Palmerston, to bring the principle of some 

 expenditure in this direction specially under the notice of Parliament for the 

 future ; and it is worthy of remark, as illustrating how far a small sum may go 

 in aid of abstract science, and how cheaply the largest and most fruitful 

 results may thereby be attained, that, as I have been informed on very high 

 authority, this apparently trivial sum has been felt as a most important help 

 in numberless instances, sometimes in the conduct of experiments, sometimes 

 in the publication of their results, and sometimes in securing accurate artistic 

 delineations. 



The relations now established between the Board of Trade and various 

 branches of scientific investigation are such as lay the foundation for further 

 progress in the same direction. I am happy to say that, in connexion with 

 the new national museum which is being organized for Scotland, there is to be 

 a special branch devoted to the industrial applications of science ; and that a 

 new Professorship — one which has long existed in almost all the continental 

 universities — thatof Technology— has just been instituted by the Government. 

 I am not less happy in being able to announce that to that chair Dr. George 

 Wilson has been appointed. The writings which we owe to the pen of Dr. Wil- 

 son, and especially his beautiful Memoirs of Cavendish, and of Dr. Reid, are 

 among the happiest productions of the Literature of Science. 



I trust also that the aid of the State may be secured in providing a house 

 and home for the scientific bodies in the metropolis. I am disposed to agree 

 with those who attach no small importance to this consummation. When 

 the Royal Society alone adequately represented all or nearly all who were 

 engaged in physical science, that great body fulfilled all the necessary con- 

 ditions of a scientific council. But now, when almost every separate division 

 of science has a separate society of its own, it has become almost indispen- 

 sable that some new arrangement should be come to, in order that abstract 

 science may have that degree of organization without which its interests Mill 

 never receive the public attention which they ought to have. 



The influence, if not the authority of the State, may also, I think, be most 

 beneficially exerted on behalf of Science, through the educational rules and 

 principles of administration of the Privy Council. But the Committee of 

 Council, in the adoption of those rules, is necessarily governed to a certain 

 extent by the feelings and opinions of tlie various churches and bodies which 



1855, / 



