AND THE STATE 227 



addition to the preoccupation of its members with 

 other claims upon their time. One of its last acts was 

 to lay before the Lord Chancellor the reports of a 

 committee of the Association on scientific evidence 

 in courts of law. 



1867-68. The Council urged upon the Govern- 

 ment the importance of transferring the control of 

 the natural history collections of the British Museum 

 from the Board of Trustees to a single Government 

 official. 



1868-70. The Association, returning to the 

 education question, laid before both Houses of 

 Parliament a petition praying for ' such measures 

 as will remedy the existing defects in secondary 

 education in schools.' The Council followed this up 

 by sending a deputation to wait upon the Lord 

 President of the Council, and obtained the appoint- 

 ment of a Royal Commission ' to make inquiry with 

 regard to scientific instruction and the advancement 

 of science.' This was an achievement of no little 

 importance : but procedure by way of a Royal 

 Commission has seldom proved expeditious, and the 

 present instance was not an exception. We may, 

 however, interrupt the chronology of this record 

 by a quotation from the report of the Council for 

 1875-76 : 



* The Council . . . waited as a deputation upon 

 the Lord President of the Council and upon the 

 Secretary of State for the Home Department, and 

 urged upon the Government the opinion of the 

 Association that it is of the highest importance to 

 the welfare of this country that the Government 

 should without delay give systematic material aid 

 to the development of the higher scientific education, 



