200 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



Brougham, then Lord Chancellor of England, and for its vice- 

 chairman Lord John Eussell (now Earl Eussell), a cabinet 

 minister, thus stamping with Government patronage this 

 memorable society. 



In 1832 it commenced to publish a magazine — the Penny 

 Magazine — very popular in its day; and although its articles 

 were of a miscellaneous character, a great many of them had 

 relation to science. In the preface to the first volume there 

 are one or two passages worth quoting. These sentences are 

 as follows : " It was considered by Edmund Burke about 

 forty years ago, say 1792, that there were 80,000 readers in 

 this country." " In the present year, 1832, the sale of the 

 Penny Magazine was 200,000. It therefore may be fairly 

 calculated that the number of readers of one single periodical 

 will amount to a million." I pause here to remark that this 

 computation of Edmund Burke gives us a clue to the general 

 intelligence afloat at the time when this inquiry commences, 

 viz., 1777. Eighty thousand general readers then, what is 

 the number in this year of grace, 1877? Who can tell? 

 Certainly nearly millions must stand for thousands. 



The society had been accused of monopoly, which it repudi- 

 ated. " It is true," said the society, " that former Governments 

 had granted monopolies to some individuals, but it was with 

 the intent, not of cheapening and promoting the circulation of 

 printed matter, but by keeping up the price to diminish it. 

 In those days the Government were afraid the people should 

 learn to think!' In answer to some again who asserted that 

 general education is an evil, it was said : " The people will 

 not abuse the power they have acquired to read, and there- 

 fore to think. Let them be addressed in the spirit of sin- 

 cerity and respect, and they will prove that they are fully 

 entitled to the praise which Milton bestowed upon their 

 forefathers, as being a 'nation not slow and dull, but of a 

 quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit, acute to invent, subtle 

 and sinewy to discourse, not beneath the reach of any point 

 that human capacity can soar to.' " 



During the last few years people have gone more out of 

 doors and into the fields to study nature. Botanical societies 

 and field clubs have done much to foster education in natural 



