245 



the examination test should be confined to those who are candidates 

 for Government, or other public situations ; on the contrary, it seems 

 exceedingly desirable that a plan of admitting to the privileges of an 

 examination all applicants, who desire to be examined, should be 

 adopted by the State. The effect of such a measure upon education 

 generally, will undoubtedly be most beneficial. A certificate might be 

 given to each person examined, of the extent of his acquirements. It 

 would then be the part of employers to ascertain whether the holders 

 of these certificates possessed in addition such qualifications as would 

 fit them for the situations at their disposal. To such measures as 

 those above and before recommended, together with the coopera- 

 tion of the Department of Science and Art, and the unremitting 

 exertions of the Committee of Privy Council for education, presided 

 over by its Vice- President, or a Minister of Public Instruction, we 

 must look for a gradual development of a more general taste for 

 scientific studies, with its certain accompaniment, a proper apprecia- 

 tion of scientific acquirements and researches. Then, and then only, 

 will Science be generally recognized by a commercial and manu- 

 facturing population, who owe everything to her applications, not 

 only as "the very living principle and soul of the industrial arts," 

 but as one of the most truly noble of all intellectual pursuits. 



It is not extraordinary that those who are disposed to form a low 

 estimate of the value of scientific research, should also entertain 

 doubts as to the propriety of hazarding human life in its behalf. In 

 the late discussions on the expediency of undertaking another Polar 

 Expedition, it seemed to be assumed by some, that the well-grounded 

 anticipation of valuable contributions to physical and geographical 

 science, would not alone be sufficient to justify the exposing of the 

 lives of gallant men to peril, not even of those who were most 

 willing and anxious to be so employed, emulous of such distinction, 

 and regardless of the risk. However this may be, it is certain that 

 Science has sustained and does still sustain injury from the fear of 

 offending against this popular notion, that it is wrong to hazard 

 human life for such an object. In the case of the Polar Expedition, 

 the risk would be very small, inasmuch as the exploration, instead 

 of being as formerly a tentative one, embracing many thousand miles 

 of unknown coast, would be confined to a fixed and limited locality 

 hitherto unexplored and possessed of great scientific interest. Inde, 



VOL. VIII, X 



