GOVERNMENT AID TO SCIENCE. 89 



assert. We have only to look around us to see what 

 science has done for mankind. But those are best 

 acquainted with the practical value of scientific know- 

 ledge who are themselves engaged in scientific re- 

 searches, or are at least proficient in scientific matters. 

 Hundreds, for example, might see in the complicated 

 instruments which are to be found in the Greenwich 

 Observatory nothing but ingenious applications for the 

 solution of theoretical problems ; it is only astronomers, 

 or those who are versed in the processes of astronomy, 

 who know that our whole system of commerce would 

 be affected injuriously if those instruments were de- 

 stroyed or left unused. Here we have an instance of 

 science working under State patronage, working in 

 the cause of the State; and what Colonel Strange 

 proposes is to multiply instances of this sort. The 

 State profits by the labours of the Greenwich astro- 

 nomers, and those astronomers would for the most part 

 be unable or unwilling to continue their labours but 

 for the pecuniary reward which they receive from the 

 State. But assuredly the State would suffer more 

 than the astronomers if the establishment at Greenwich 

 were done away with. And precisely in the same way 

 the State would reap important advantages from the 

 labours of proficients in other departments of science 

 who are now debarred by considerations of expense, or 

 by the necessity of earning a livelihood, from applying 

 their skill to forward the cause of scientific progress. 



Colonel Strange's proposal includes the establish- 

 ment of national institutions expressly for the practical 



