96 On the present State of the (Fes. 
bestow—the Copleian medal; but I have not yet heard of his being 
complimented with a Fellowship.* To what, then, are we to 
attribute these exclusions? If they arise from the paltry pride of 
circumstances; if genuine scientific acquirements, and irreproach- 
able moral conduct, are not considered as equivalent to gaudy equi- 
pages and large establishments ; if the latter are preferred to the 
former in the selection of its members; the Royal Society may 
boast of being che richest scientific association in Europe, but it 
will never be esteemed the most learned. 
I have now gone over what I consider to be the principal prevent- 
ing causes to our progress in mathematics, viz.: first, the impos- 
sibility of publishing without an almost certain loss any mathema- 
tical work beyond the mere class of elementary treatises ; secondly, 
that no stimulus is held out to produce emulation; and, thirdly, 
that these sciences are not patronized and protected by our prin- 
cipal scientific institution; an English mathematician having, 
therefore, neither to look forward to pecuniary remuneration, nor 
to honorary distinction, it is not surprising that so few of them 
pursue the subject further than is necessary for taking their degree 
with reputation at the University, or to qualify them for such situa- 
tions as they may have obtained elsewhere. 
The mathematical examination at Cambridge is certainly very 
respectable, but the importance of it is rather apparent than real ; 
there appears to be a defect in the system, not arising from any 
want of talent and knowledge in the professors, not in any want of 
value and excellencies in their lectures, nor in any deficiency in 
activity or ability in the private tutors, but in the nature of the 
stimulus, which is rather calculated to make a stiperficial than a 
profound mathematician. 
A Cambridge student of good acquirements, and a “ reading 
man ” (as he will be termed there), manifests a constant anxiety by 
day and-by night, awake and (I had almost said) asleep, not to 
become an acute mathematician or a profound philosopher, not to 
acquire scientific knowledge to apply to the useful, the ornamental, 
or the professional duties of after life, but that he may be a first or 
second wrangler, and obtain the Smith’s prize. To these points, 
and to these exclusively, his exertions for the last 12 months of his 
under graduate ‘probation will be directed. He reads books of all 
kinds, not to’store his mind with principles and truths, but to hunt 
up shert solutions, rapid investigations, and comprehensive formule ;> 
his memory thas becomes an immense portfolio of problems and 
solutions, which is poured upon the senate-house tables during the 
week of examination. He attains his object, delights in the eclat 
of his honours, becomes a senior or second wrangler, perhaps a 
“‘ Smith’s prize map,’ and then bids farewell, ‘a long farewell,” 
to alma mater and mathematics. This is at least the case with by 
far the‘greater number of Cambridge students; we have certainly 
sv 0) Mr. Iyory is a Fellow of the Royal Society. —T. 
