1869.] Pradieal Scientific Research. 49 



patronage, and preference of inferior agents, wlio have the support 

 of friendly recommendations, to superior agents who are standing 

 alone. 



In regard to this point of view it will not be necessary to say 

 more at present, than that these objections are all properly appli- 

 cable to state ^'maladministration" rather than to state action. 

 The notion that the government of an enhghtened community 

 should concern itself with facilitating and quickening the know- 

 ledge and intelligence of the people, of course presumes that the 

 government is to be one that is in every sense worthy of the 

 important trust. There can be no doubt that if a government is 

 not worthy of this great trust, and is not capable of carrying out 

 this important object, it is not worthy of being held to be a govern- 

 ment at all. A writer in a recent number of the ' Student ' has 

 very tersely and admirably touched upon this aspect of the matter, 

 and has given pointed expression to the true principle that has to 

 be looked to in regard to it. He says, " As civilization advances, 

 and political hberty extends, hostile distinctions between govern- 

 ments and people pass away, and nations tend to organize themselves 

 as great co-operative societies, turning the central power in any 

 du-ection consistent with individual rights, and likely to be pro- 

 ductive of general good. There ought to he no fear of investing 

 jproperly constituted governments uith too much jiower of heing 

 useful, though there may be great necessity for constituting efficient 

 safeguards and checks against abuse. Human progress is not hkely 

 to diminish the sphere of state action, but, on the contrary, to 

 increase it." It is surely true that in few branches of state action 

 have the evils alluded to less to be feared than in relation to the 

 adoption of formal measures for the extension of science. So far 

 as the exj)eriment has been tried, there has been ample guarantee 

 that where science is concerned, distinction and acknowledged 

 ability do outweigh all other influences and considerations of what- 

 ever kind, and to an extent certainly not encountered in other 

 departments of the pubhc service. It is enough in illustration of 

 this to point to the names that are found at the head of four impor- 

 tant departments where circumstances have compelled a considerable 

 amount of state action. An Airey directs the National Observatory. 

 An Owen looks after the Natural History Collections of Bloomsbury. 

 A Hooker, after years of tried and arduous labour among the 

 Himalayas, is the presiding spirit of the treasures and glories of 

 Kew ; and in the young Mineralogical School in Jermyn Street are 

 encountered such names as Murchison, \Yarrington Smyth, and 

 Huxley. 



It should also most certainly be remembered that in one particular 

 sense science-extension enjoys a remarkable immunity from danger 

 of noxious contamination, issuing from state contact, even over its 



VOL. VI. E 



