•2 Observations on the Decline of Science in England. 



who among us has ever verified Thenard's experiments on tlio 

 oxygenated acids ? Oersted's and Berzelius's on the radicals 

 of the earths ? Balard's and Serullas's on the combinations of 

 brome, and a hundred other splendid trains of research in that 

 fascinating science? Nor need we stop here. There are, in- 

 deed, few sciences which would not furnish matter for similar 

 remark- The causes are at once obvious and deep seated ; but 

 this is not the place to discuss them." 



This powerful statement, which no person has ever dared to 

 controvert in the minutest particular, was followed up by Mr 

 Babbage's bold and able work on the Decline of Science, of which 

 we have already laid before our readers a full account. 



A review of this work appeared in the 87th Number of the 

 Quarterly Reviezo, where the writer not only defended Mr Bab- 

 bage's views, but adventured upon the dangerous ground of 

 pointing out in the most fearless manner the causes which have 

 led to the decline of science. He exposed the infamous and 

 fraudulent system of our patent laws, and explained the im- 

 provements in our universities, in our metropolitan institutions, 

 and in our public boards, by which the genius of our country- 

 men might still be called forth and cherished, and the scientific 

 glory of England preserved and extended. 



The metropolitan and the provincial press took up the sub- 

 ject with their usual boldness and intelligence, and the facts of 

 the case were speedily diffused over all England. Two par- 

 ties were of course arrayed against each other. Men of science 

 who had pursued it for its own sake, and who had distinguished 

 themselves by original discoveries, entered the ranks with Mr 

 Herschel, Mr Babbage, and Sir James South, and were sup- 

 ported by many of the intelligent and disinterested friends of 

 science ; while another party, which we can scarcely charac- 

 terize, was carrying on an anonymous warfare in the bye-ways 

 of our periodical miscellanies. Individuals of no pretensions 

 even to science, and who had all their lives thought that 

 there could be nothing either good or great out of England, 

 considered it as next to treason to state that the French ex- 

 celled us in mathematics, — the Swedes and the Prussians in 

 chemistry, — the Russians in practical astronomy, — and the Ba- 

 varians in telescopes. The functionaries of scientific institu- 



