284 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



I said I could not tell, but that I thought that in after 

 life, perhaps, they would not make fools of themselves. 

 I had forgotten all about this until, many years after- 

 wards, I met the same gentleman again, and he recalled 

 to my mind our interview, and said he had always 

 remembered my answer ; and I suppose that is about 

 the truth, and that if our statesmen in the last genera- 

 tion had been brought face to face with Nature by 

 even an elementary course of instruction in practical 

 science, the effect on the country might have been far- 

 reaching. I do not speak without experience on this 

 point ; for, whilst I was in the House, after much 

 trouble we induced Sir William Harcourt, who was 

 then leading the House, to get the Government to 

 grant permission for a Select Committee to inquire 

 into the present anomalous system of English weights 

 and measures. It was late in the session, and the 

 motion had to come forward after twelve o'clock, 

 so that it was in the power of any Member to 

 object. A very prominent Member on the Opposition 

 front bench had intimated his intention of objecting, 

 so I went up to him one evening and said I regretted 

 to learn he was about to oppose the motion, and tried 

 to explain to him that the object of the Committee 

 was simply one of inquiry. " I shall certainly continue 

 my opposition," said he. " Why, the fact is that you will 

 be introducing some damned thing like decimal frac- 

 tions " ! 



Another extraordinary instance of ignorance of 

 matters scientific in high places occurred to me in 

 1876. We were arranging for an exhibition of 

 scientific apparatus, historical and otherwise, in one of 

 the South Kensington galleries, and it became my 

 duty to get funds, so an interview was accorded by a 

 Treasury official, who of course had to object to all 



