Observations on the Decline of Science in England. 13 



ting the value of science, and ignorant of the fostering cares 

 required to assist its progress.'''' — Pp. 229-230. 



In order that our readers may possess the opposite view of 

 the question, we quote the following- observations from the 

 Quarterly Review, No. 89, which profess to be the substance 

 of what has been urged by eminent ! scientific persons, in reply 

 to Mr Babbage and his friends. 



" Men of science, 1 ' says the Reviewer, " continue to be much 

 divided in opinion as to what is, and what is not, the sort of en- 

 couragement which the government of this country ought to give 

 to scientific inquiry. The views of Mr Babbage, and many 

 others, have been abundantly explained to our readers in a late 

 article ; but these are strenuously opposed by persons equally 

 eminent,* — according to whom the case stands thus : 



" Whenever the investigation of certain topics would be useful 

 to the public service, but, from whatever cause, such investiga- 

 tion is not likely to be undertaken by individual members of 

 the community, it is the clear duty of government, acting as 

 stewards or agents of the public, to employ the means placed in 

 their hands for the advancement of such objects ; but when the 

 members of the community are themselves willing and compe- 

 tent to prosecute the inquiries, the interference of government 

 would be not only useless, but hurtful. There cannot, they 

 proceed, be a doubt that the philosophical pursuits to which the 

 learned members of the French Institute devote their time, are 

 highly beneficial to their country ; or that the government of 

 France does well to pension the savans, and to invest them with 

 honours, that these able men may be stimulated to fresh inqui- 

 ries. If science in that country were not kept up by the pro- 

 tecting hand of government, it would soon languish and die; — 

 not because those accomplished philosophers, who are the ad- 

 miration of Europe, are at all lukewarm in their pursuits, but 

 because there is not, in the community at large, cither a suffi- 

 cient degree of taste for such things to render them generally 

 fashionable, or enough of wealth to make them profitable. In 

 England, they assure us, it is quite otherwise. There is not 

 only a very extensive taste for every description of science dif- 

 fused throughout our country, but there is ample wealth, always 



* Who are the persons equally eminent with Mr Herochel ami Mr Bab* 



