General and Mr. Rowland Hill, and interviews have been solicited 

 and obtained. There is a great desire on the part of the Post Office 

 authorities to carry out this object ; and the only obstacle to success 

 seems to be the reluctance of some foreign countries to consent to a 

 perfectly free admission of publications. 



2ndly. The subject of pensions to men of science has been brought 

 before successive Governments, with the view of obtaining for Science 

 its fair share in the distribution of the Parliamentary Grant, and im- 

 pugning that principle of selection which implies that absolute poverty 

 in the recipient ought to be an indispensable qualification for the 

 receipt, a principle of which the adoption appears to have originated 

 in the smallness of the sum placed at the disposal of the Government 

 for the recompense and encouragement of civil services. 



Srdly. The Committee supported, and with success, a representa- 

 tion which had been already made to the Government by your 

 Council, urging them to establish an office in this country to coope- 

 rate with Lieut. Maury in America, in collecting and reducing 

 meteorological and hydrographical observations made at sea, and 

 embodying the results in improved charts and sailing directions. 



4thly. The Parliamentary Committee has supported the memorial 

 addressed to Government, requesting them to appropriate some 

 buildings in a central situation in this metropolis to the accommoda- 

 tion of the principal scientific societies. 



5thly, and lastly. The Committee has, in a Report lately presented 

 to the British Association at Glasgow, collected and embodied the 

 opinions of eminent cultivators of Science on a question of great 

 importance, viz. Whether any measures could be adopted by the 

 Government or Parliament that would improve the position of Science 

 or its cultivators in this country ? 



The absence of a representation in Parliament has been mentioned 

 as being possibly one of the causes of the supposed want of deference 

 to the interests of Science ; but there are others which may well 

 exercise some influence in bringing about a result, which, if its 

 existence be admitted, must be a subject of regret to all whose 

 opinions are deserving of respect. 



It may be that there is something in the constitution of our 

 Scientific Societies which may deprive them of their due weight and 

 influence. In some foreign countries there are Institutes, or other 



