H4 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



experimenting. Whether we look to the honour 

 of England, as a nation which ought always to be 

 the foremost in promoting physical science, or to 

 those vast economical advantages which must 

 accrue from such establishments, we cannot but 

 feel that experimental research ought to be made 

 with us an object of national concern, and not left, 

 as hitherto, exclusively to the private enterprise 

 of self-sacrificing amateurs, and the necessarily 

 inconsecutive action of our present Governmental 

 Departments and of casual Committees. The 

 Council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh has 

 moved for this object in a memorial presented by 

 them to the Royal Commission on Scientific 

 Education and the Advancement of Science. The 

 Continent of Europe is referred to for an example 

 to be followed with advantage in this country, in 

 the following words : 



" On the Continent there exist certain institu- 

 " tions, fitted with instruments, apparatus, 

 'chemicals, and other appliances, which are meant 

 "to h(\ and which arc made, available to men of 

 " science, to enable them, at a moderate cost, to 

 " pursue original researches." 



