242 



wearied research. It cannot be but that on such a spot, and in such 

 society, even the diligent cultivator of science will be stimulated to 

 greater exertions. 



Your Council have also adopted a measure which cannot fail to 

 be productive of benefit to experimental philosophers. It is well 

 known that on some occasions, when money has been voted by the 

 Council, on the recommendation of the Government Grant Com- 

 mittee, for the purpose of aiding scientific researches, a part of such 

 money has been expended on delicate apparatus, necessary for the 

 purpose of performing the requisite experiments. It is proposed 

 that all such instruments shall become vested in this Society for the 

 benefit of the scientific public ; and the Council hope to be enabled 

 to set apart a room for their safe custody, and perhaps for the per- 

 formance of experiments ; thus in some measure reverting to the 

 practice of ancient times; with this difference, that, whereas the 

 apparatus of those days was necessarily primitive and rude, the In- 

 strumental Museum about to be constituted will probably contain 

 some of the choicest specimens of the workmanship of our most 

 accomplished artisans. 



I cannot take leave of this subject without tendering our sincere 

 thanks to Her Majesty's Government for providing us with so con- 

 venient and central an abode, a measure which will redound no less 

 to the honour of those who conferred, tban of those who received the 

 valuable boon. 



I have before alluded to a Report of the Parliamentary Committee 

 of the British Association, addressed to that Association at Glasgow 

 in September 1 855, in which were embodied opinions of certain emi- 

 nent cultivators of Science on the question, Whether any measures 

 could be adopted by the Government or Parliament that would im- 

 prove the position of Science or its cultivators in this country ? 



The discussion of this important question by a Committee of the 

 British Association at Glasgow, was followed by a motion in the 

 House of Commons, during the last Session, by Mr. Heywood, in 

 which he proposed that the question should be referred to a Com- 

 mittee of the House of Commons. The proposal was not entertained 

 by the House ; but in the discussion which took place, Lord Pal- 

 merston is understood to have expressed himself in terms from which 

 it might be inferred that he would be willing to take into favourable 



