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Board of the Trustees of the British Museum ; the Board of Visitors 

 of the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, which has an official con- 

 nexion with the Board of Admiralty ; the various officers to whom 

 the management of matters connected with science or art is com- 

 mitted by the Council of Education, Board of Trade, or Military 

 or Naval authorities. Now if we contrast this system of ours with 

 that of our neighbours in France and some other continental states, 

 we shall find that there are marked and striking differences between 

 them. In France there is the Institute, the members of which not 

 only do not pay out of their own resources for the honour they enjoy, 

 but are invested with high privileges and great official consideration, 

 and receive stipends from the State, at the price no doubt of an 

 amount of Government interference with their proceedings which our 

 countrymen might probably hesitate to submit to. I believe that in 

 France the members of the Institute, as such, are regularly con- 

 sulted on the important scientific questions which must present 

 themselves for solution from time to time in the course of civil and 

 military administration. In England, on the other hand, the various 

 voluntary or private Societies established for the promotion of science 

 have never been recognized as advisers of the Government, or con- 

 sulted as a rule ; though undoubtedly the Councils of this and other 

 Societies have been often applied to for advice, and more frequently 

 perhaps of late years than formerly ; but the various Boards and 

 officers above referred to are not only invariably consulted on those 

 matters which are consigned to their management, but there are few 

 instances on record in which their advice has been neglected, or the 

 measures recommended by them have failed to be carried into effect. 

 In instituting any comparison of the relative merits of these two 

 modes of proceeding, it is clear that, irrespective of the results 

 obtained, the decision of the question as to which is to be preferred, 

 must depend greatly on the mode by which the referees of the 

 Executive in the two countries are appointed ; for it may be fairly 

 assumed that both contain men well qualified, both by their extensive 

 attainments and natural and acquired abilities, to give good advice to 

 their respective Governments. Now the French Institute undoubtedly 

 comprehends most able and highly distinguished men, enjoying an 

 established and world-wide reputation, and well qualified to give 

 sound advice to their Government on questions of science. This is 





