250 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 



otherwise, to attend the annual meetings without 

 expense to themselves other than that of member- 

 ship. The Association was enabled to do this, 

 thanks largely to private liberality : the benefits of 

 such a measure, if it were within the resources of the 

 Association to establish it upon a regular footing, 

 could hardly be over-estimated. A step recently 

 taken toward this object was the provision of a 

 membership fee at half the ordinary rate for univer- 

 sity students joining the Association for the first 

 time. 



In previous discussion of relations between the 

 State and scientific research and organisation, no 

 reference has been made to a remarkable diversity 

 of outlook which revealed itself in earlier years 

 among the cultivators of science. Brews ter has 

 already appeared in these pages (Chapter I) as an 

 admirer of foreign institutions, and in his address 

 in 1850, after quoting a description of the National 

 Institute of France by Playfair, he spoke thus : 



' This just eulogy on the National Institute of 

 France . . . may be safely extended to every branch 

 of theoretical and practical science ; and I have no 

 hesitation in saying . . . that it is the noblest and 

 most effective institution that ever was organised 

 for the promotion of science. ... In a great nation 

 like ours, where the higher interests and objects of 

 the State are necessarily organised, it is a singular 

 anomaly that the intellectual interests of the country 

 should, in a great measure, be left to voluntary 

 support and individual zeal. ... In the history of 

 no civilised people can we find private establishments 

 so generously fostered, so energetically conducted, 

 and so successful in their objects. ... 



