NATURE 



429 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1875 



THE SCIENCE COMMISSION REPORT ON 

 THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE* 



WE pass now to the fourth and last head, which 

 deals with 

 T/ie Central Organisation which is best calculated to en- 

 able the Government to determine its action in all ques- 

 tions affecting Science. 



The Commissioners discuss two questions separately 

 under this head, (i) The appointing of a Minister of 

 Science. (2) The establishing of a Council of Science. 

 Extracts from the Evidence relating to the Appointment 

 of a Minister of Science. 

 The Commissioners observe — 



" We have received a large amount of evidence in 

 favour of the appointment of a Minister of Science. 

 There has been almost complete unanimity among the 

 witnesses on this point." 



Indeed, the necessity for such a minister is the one 

 theme never lost sight of throughout the bulky volume of 

 evidence. Scarcely a proposal is made which does not. 

 either involve or imply this necessity. Expunge all the 

 recommendations that a Minister of Science should be 

 appointed, and there will scarcely remain a recommenda- 

 tion that can be practically carried out, or that is not, on 

 its face, almost a confessed absurdity. 



The extracts which we append from evidence on this 

 question form but a very small portion of the representa- 

 tions submitted to the Royal Commission, of which they 

 must be considered only samples. 



Prof. Owen : — 



" I conceive that the recommendation by Bentham in 

 the last century of such a minister can hardly fail to be 

 practically adopted before the close of the present cen- 

 tury, and that the necessity of having a minister for such 

 a purpose will be recognised." 



Sir W. Thomson : — 



" Would you contemplate that a new department of the 

 State should be constituted for directing the scientific 

 work of the Government ? — It would be quite necessary 

 to have a Minister of Science ; it is indeed, I think, gene- 

 rally felt that a Minister of Science and scientific instruc- 

 tion is a necessity." 



" Not a minister of other instruction ? — Specially of 

 scientific instruction, and not under any national educa- 

 tion board, but a minister of science and scientific in- 

 struction. The minister would necessarily be in Parlia- 

 ment and a political man, but it would be very rare 

 that he could also be a scientific man, and perhaps not 

 desirable that he should be a scientific man, but he must 

 have able scientific advisers always at hand." 



" Could any such duties be well assigned to any existing 

 department of the State .? — I believe not." 



" You spoke of the necessity for having a Minister of 

 Science ; do you conceive that it would be requisite to 

 have a cabinet minister for education and a second cabi- 

 net minister for science, or would you contemplate that 

 the minister for education should be the minister for 

 science ? — I do not wish absolutely to fix it beforehand ; 

 on the whole I think, however, that the title of Minister of 

 Education would not suffice. If there is to be a minister 

 it must be a minister of science and education. There 

 might be a minister of science and education, with a 

 chief secretary- or under minister for national and elemen- 



* Ccmtimied from p. 392. 



Vol. XII.— No. 307 



tary education, and another for the advancement of 

 science and for the higher scientific instruction. But 

 naturally the minister of education must act for the 

 masses ; that must be his great duty, and however much 

 he might wish to act for science, he has still a great duty 

 to the masses. On the whole I think it would be prefer- 

 able to have a distinct minister of science and scientific 

 instruction. A minister of science and scientific instruc- 

 tion, as a subordinate to a chief minister of science and 

 education, might probably be a very good arrangement. 



" The Minister of Science administers knowledge to the 

 whole country." 



Col. Strange : — 



" It seems to me that in the first place there should be 

 some means of bringing science fully before the nation 

 through Parliament. I know of no means of doing this 

 that is in accordance with our constitutional procedure, 

 except through a minister of State ; and therefore assum- 

 ing science to be a matter of enormous national impor- 

 tance, I think it is essential that it should be all brought 

 under one minister of State, who should be responsible 

 to Parliament for everything which is done in the name 

 of the nation to further science, and who should frame 

 his own estimates and keep them distinct from those of 

 departments which have little or nothing to do with 



science I think that there should be an estimate 



for science just as there is an estimate for the army and 

 for the navy 



" What I should be glad to see would be a minister for 

 science ; but I dare say that if proper assistance were 

 given to such a minister, he might superintend other de- 

 partments as well ; for instance, as on the Continent, he 

 might superintend education and the fine arts. I think it 

 would be preferable that he should be for science only. 

 I think there is quite enough for him to do in England, 

 for it to be done thoroughly ; but rather than have no 

 minister I would assign to him also education and the 

 fine arts." 



" There would be a difficulty, would there not, in defin- 

 ing the boundaries between the duties of the minister for 

 science and the minister for education ? — I think not. I 

 think one would relate to education, which is quite a dis- 

 tinct thing from national research, and I think that they 

 should be kept as distinct as possible. I think one great 

 evil now existing is the mixing up of those two things. 

 Throughout my evidence I have here and there expressed 

 the same opinion that they should be kept distinct, one 

 being the means, the other the end ; instruction I con- 

 ceive to be the mode of growing a certain number of 

 persons fit to investigate." 



Mr. De la Rue :— 



" I think that science ought to be recognised in the 

 Ministry by the appointment of a Science Minister, in 

 order that all matters relating to science might come pro- 

 perly under the cognisance of the Government, and that 

 whenever the Government sought the aid of scientific 

 men it should be through the intervention of the Science 

 Minister " 



Mr. John Ball :— 



" .... If science is to be aided effectually, and at the 

 same time controlled effectually, there should be some 

 permanent officer in the department of the Government 

 that has its relation with science, whose duty it should be 

 and who should be responsible for making himself gene- 

 rally aware of the state of science and the doings of its 

 cultivators, and who should be the proper person to advise 

 the Government, not as to the best mode of deciding a 

 strictly scientific question, but as to where the means for 

 solving it are to be had. I look upon it at present as 

 being a wholly haphazard matter how questions of science 

 or connected with science and affecting the progress of 

 science are decided in the public offices, and I speak from 



