26 



interest, if a small part only of the money thus saved to the nation 

 should be expended on their promotion ; and happy would it be for 

 the nation, if such a check were provided against the improvident 

 waste of the hardly-earned produce of its own industry. 



The natural tendency of men is to undervalue what they cannot 

 understand, and thus the abstruse speculations of the geometrician, 

 and the recondite researches of the physicist, the object of which even 

 is unintelligible to the many, are deemed of no value when weighed in 

 the balance of public opinion against the splendid inventions which, 

 after a long series of years, emanate from their labours. Often, when 

 those who have scattered the precious seed are dead and forgotten, 

 and their families are perhaps pining in penury, and calling in vain 

 on an ungrateful country for a petty dole from the public purse, 

 does the glorious harvest ripen, which they have sown. For this 

 cause among many others, the opportunity of taking the opinions 

 of such a Body, or such a Board, would be of the last importance to 

 the best interests of society, for their approval would be a guarantee 

 to the public of the expediency of any measure which they might 

 recommend. It is impossible of course to suggest any innovation 

 from which those who make the proposal could by possibility derive 

 advantage, direct or indirect, without subjecting them to the charge 

 of doing so from interested motives ; and yet a distinguished Mem- 

 ber of the Government Grant Committee, from which these reso- 

 lutions emanated, said early in the course of their discussion, " Let 

 us ask for nothing for ourselves," and in this spirit were the resolu- 

 tions framed. The chief object aimed at, was the encouragement of 

 young men, competent to the task, who, with insufficient means at 

 their command, were just entering upon a hopeful career of scientific 

 research. You will therefore look in vain for any recommendations 

 to bestow titles, medals, or other honours upon men whose scientific 

 labours have long been before the world. But no amendment in our 

 institutions could ever be carried out, if men were to be deterred by 

 such considerations as I have adverted to, from fearlessly advocating 

 that which in their conscience they believe to be fraught with advan- 

 tage. Since the resolutions were transmitted to the Government, 

 they have been moved for, laid on the table of both Houses of Par- 

 liament, and printed ; whatever further steps may be taken to urge 

 their adoption, I do not think that it would be right that this Society, 



