RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 251 



Here the speaker named a number of the principal 

 scientific societies, and continued : 



c But they are nevertheless defective in their con- 

 stitution, limited in their operation, and incapable, 

 from their very nature, of developing, and direct- 

 ing, and rewarding the indigenous talent of the 

 country. . . . But were a Royal Academy or Insti- 

 tute, like that of France, established on the basis 

 of our existing institutions, and a class of resident 

 members enabled to devote themselves wholly to 

 science, . . . our universities would then breathe a 

 more vital air. Our science would put forth new 

 energies, and our literature might rise to the high 

 level at which it stands in our sister land.' 



Brewster believed that he saw the way opening 

 toward the realisation of his ideal. 



* Our institutions have already, to a certain 

 extent, become national ones. Apartments belong- 

 ing to the nation have been liberally granted to them. 

 . . . Our private institutions have in reality assumed 

 the transition phase, and it requires only an electric 

 spark from some sagacious and patriotic statesman 

 to combine in one noble phalanx the scattered 

 elements of our intellectual greatness, and guide to 

 lofty achievements and glorious triumphs the talent 

 and genius of the nation.' 



This view was flatly controverted by Airy from 

 the chair in the following year (1851). ' A wish 

 has sometimes been expressed,' he said, ( that an 

 Academy of Science were established in Britain. 

 In this wish I, personally, do not join. ... I grate- 

 fully acknowledge the services which Government 

 has rendered to science by acceding to the requests 



