306 Royal Society :— 
to be, viewed as the fulfilment of the duties of institutions such as 
magnetic observatories ; those duties ought always to be held to in- 
clude (either on the part of the Directors of the Observatories them- 
selves, or on that of persons who, as Superintendents or otherwise, 
have constantly watched the progress of the work) “ the systematic 
deduction from the registered observations, of the mean values, and 
of the local coefficients of diurnal, annual, and secular change ;” 
because “no other class of persons stands in anything like so favour- 
able a position for working out the first elementary laws of pheno- 
mena, and referring them to their immediate points of dependence,” 
as those who have directed or superintended the processes by which 
the data required for the knowledge of the phenomena have been 
obtained. The introductory discussions prefixed to the several vo- 
lumes which contain the observations at the Colonial Observatories, 
and a succession of papers presented to the Royal Society, and pub- 
lished in the Philosophical Transactions, bear testimony to at least 
unsparing labour, on the part of the Superintendent, to give a com- 
pleteness to the experiment of Colonial Observatories, corresponding 
to its original conception ; though no one is more sensible than him- 
self that this portion of the duty might well have fallen into abler 
hands. One great advantage in the task has undoubtedly been en- 
joyed, viz. the union of the detailed knowledge above alluded to, 
with the opportunity of generalization and consequent insight, 
afforded by results admitting of strict comparison and combination, 
obtained from well-selected stations at such distant points of the 
globe, and by a uniform system of observation. 
It may be useful on the present occasion to recall to more distinct 
recollection the views and opinions entertained by those who were the 
principal instigators of the proceedings by which the Royal Society 
became the responsible advisers,—and Her Majesty’s Government 
the chief supporters,—of measures which have placed this country 
in the very conspicuous position of taking that lead in the advance- 
ment of certain branches of science, which other nations were willing 
and desirous that she should take. These views cannot be better 
stated than in the words of one to whom all will be willing to concede 
pre-eminence, as well in counselling the recommendation to Govern- 
ment as in conducting the several points connected with it to a sue- 
cessful issue (Herschel, in Quart. Review, No. CXXXI.). “ Great 
physical theories, with their trains of practical consequences, are pre- 
eminently national objects, whether for glory or utility, In effect, 
such they ought to be considered by every nation calling itself civi- 
lized ; and if we look to consequences, we have only to point to the 
history of science in all its branches to show, that every great ac- 
cession to theoretical knowledge has uniformly been followed by a 
new practice, and by the abandonment of ancient methods as com- 
paratively inefficient and uneconomical. This consideration alone 
we think sufficient to justify, even on utilitarian grounds, a large and 
liberal devotion of the public means to setting on foot undertakings 
and maintaining establishments, in which the investigation of physical 
laws, and the determination of exact data, should be the avowed and 
