8 Observations on the Decline of Science in England. 



the King of England to a British or to a foreign philosopher ? 

 What is it to science that a wealthy individual receives L. 10,000 

 for a scientific survey, which could have been executed for 

 L. 1000? or that several expeditions, got up avowedly for a sci- 

 entific object, but really for the benefit of naval men, have left 

 our ports without a single astronomer, hydrographer, or natu- 

 ralist on board ? But though such fragments of a shallow and 

 deceitful policy are nothing to science, yet they are everything 

 to a minister. He pleads upon them as points of character, 

 and when his insincerity is unmasked, and his miserable expe- 

 dients detected, he consoles himself, and blinds his friends, by 

 the proof that he was not perfectly indifferent to the great inte- 

 rests that were confided to his care. 



The object of these observations is to introduce to the reader 

 the opinions of an able cultivator of science, resident in India, 

 respecting the comparative condition of the sciences in England 

 and France, and respecting the decline of science in England. 

 These opinions arc given in an excellent work published at Cal- 

 cutta, entitled Gleanings in Science ; and we believe we need 

 not scruple to say, that the author of them is Captain Herbert, 

 assistant surveyor-general of India, and late superintendent of 

 the mineralogical survey of that country. To the sentiments 

 which this disinterested and able writer has expressed, we would 

 beg the particular notice of our readers, especially of those who 

 may be disposed to entertain an opposite view of the subject ; 

 and we would direct his particular attention to the absolute co- 

 incidence between Captain Herbert's views and those of Mr 

 Babbage, Mr Herschel, and the writer of the article on the de- 

 cline of science in the Quarterly Review. 



" If to the labours of the officers of La Chevrstte we add 

 those of MM. Diard and Duvaucel, of M. Dussoumier, and of 

 a gentleman well known in Calcutta, now busily employed in 

 investigating the natural history and physical geography of In- 

 dia, we shall be forced to confess, however humiliating the ac- 

 knowledgment, that France will have done more in the short 

 period of the peace for making India known to the scientific 

 men of Europe, than England has in the whole period during 

 which she has held the country. There is a general spirit of 

 scientific research diffused throughout the French nation, which 



