Fune 15, 1871 | 
to administer the affairs of the newly-acquired territories. In- 
struction in science is one thing, and, I admit, an indispensable 
thing, without which there can be no foundation for future 
scientific progress ; scientific investigation is another and perfectly 
distinct thing, constituting the end to which instruction is the 
means. Each may be pursued separately and solely. But if 
instruction be scanty, investigation will be unsound ; if investiga- 
tion is neglected, progress must be impossible. It will be for the 
Royal Commission now sitting to point out the relation of in- 
struction to investigation, and to decide how far and by what 
agency the Government may beneficially aid each. 
The first report of the Royal Commission has been published. 
It deals with certain limited matters of detail only, relating to 
the occupation of some new buildings at South Kensington. 
Possibly the settlement of these details may have claimed imme- 
diate attention with reference to the arrangement of the buildings 
in question. This first report has therefore not touched the great 
problems above adverted to, which await the deliberation of the 
Commission, and an authoritative solution of which at its hands 
is anxiously expected by the scientific world. 
It may be asked why, as a Royal Commission is investigating 
the relation of Science to the State, the subject of the present 
paper should be brought forward independently of that body. 
_ The reply is, first, that discussions of any of the questions on 
which the Royal Commission is deliberating can hardly fail to 
afford light and assistance useful to the inquiry ; secondly, that 
the problem submitted to the Royal Commission is, ‘ How 
should the State aid Science?”’ whereas the question on which I 
am to address you is totally different, namely, ““ How can Science 
aid the State?” Although this latter question may be considered 
_ by the Royal Commission, it is certainly not necessarily a part 
of their programme, and as it is a question of at least equal im- 
_ portance with the former one, it is most undesirable that it should 
_ be overlooked. 
_ To the question, “ How can Science aid the State?” TI reply, 
_ **By means of a permanent scientific commission or council, 
- constituted for the purpose of advising the Government on all 
_ State scientific questions.” 
In order to apprehend the aim of this proposal, its practical 
_ operation and probable results, it must be examined systematically 
and in detail. I propose to do this under the following heads :— 
___ I. The scope implied by the term State scientific questions, 
and the importance of those questions. 
II. How are such questions at present dealt with, and with 
what results ? 
Ill. What should be the constitution and functions of the 
- proposed Council of Science? 
IV. What objections can be alleged against the proposed 
Bignene  . 
[On the second point we quote the following :—] 
Il. How are such questions at present dealt with, and with what 
__ results ?—I wish to preface my remarks on this head by saying that 
they are not intended to apply to any particular party in politics. 
_In speaking of the shortcomings of the Government, I mean to 
include ALL administrations, whatever political principles they 
may have represented. I cannot perceive any difference worth 
_ noting between different Cabinets as regards science. All have, 
in my opinion, displayed, in the most elaborate manner, their 
incapacity to grasp science as anational matter. Iam not aware 
of a single attempt on the part of any Government that has ever 
existed in England to define its duties with regard to science, or 
_ to model any administrative agency for dealing with it in a 
rational, efficient, and comprehensive manner. It would be in- 
_vidious and unjust to single out any set of Ministers as having 
been more negligent in this matter than others, where all have 
been to all intents and purposes equally indifferent to it. 
How then are State scientific questions now dealt with? The 
answer is, desultorily, capriciously, inefficiently, irresponsibly, 
_ when they are dealt with at all, but in many instances of the 
_ greatest moment they are absolutely neglected. The number of 
"Questions involving science on which Government has to decide, 
are innumerable and never ending. Every day adds to their 
“number and their urgency. This vast increase of such questions 
__has taken place within a period which, in the life of a nation, is 
very brief. . . . . Our official scientific arrangements are 
| _ substantially the same now as they were in the pre-scientific era 
_—they may be more extensive in degree, but they are the same 
in kind—the butter may be spread further, but there is not more 
butter, The enormous scientific activity of the last 30 or 40 
“years does not seem to have struck the official world as a fact 





NATURE 


13! 

having a bearing on the humdrum routine of the Departments— 
more secretaries—more clerks—more subordinates of various 
kinds have been appointed to prevent accumulation of arrears ; 
more committees of inquiry have sat, more scientific witnesses 
have been examined, more reports published, if not read. But 
not a single step has been taken towards the creation of an 
organisation capable of concentrating and directing all this scat- 
tered effort. 
The example of foreign nations, the pressure of the public, 
and the demands of inventors, daily set before the Government 
scientific puzzles, which they are often, if not generally, at their 
wits’ end to solve. It never seems to occur to them that these 
puzzles will never cease, and that they will increase in difficulty 
as a matter of absolute certainty. The attempt is made to stave 
off by temporary expedients work of a permanent character, 
The puzzles are guessed at, and the guess is oftener wrong than 
right. Problems too deep for guessing are either pushed out of 
sight or submitted to methods of investigation that end ina 
blunder, perhaps a catastrophe. 
I do not wish either to declaim or to exaggerate. I will 
briefly indicate the provision that does exist for the solution of 
State scientific questions. It is of three principal kinds. First, 
official subordinates in various departments. Second, tempo- 
rary and special Committees. Third, consultation with indivi- 
duals eminent in science, or with scientific bodies, I omit 
debates in Parliament, because no scientific question ever was or 
will be solved by such an assembly, and I omit also the press, 
which is so influential in other respects, as altogether unreliable 
for such inquiries. 
The objections to the first kind of provision, viz., official sub- 
ordinates, are, that such persons have almost invariably other * 
duties of an executive nature to perform, and have not therefore 
the leisure necessary for scientific investigation. Science, more- 
over, is now in a stage in which scarcely any one problem can 
be adequately grasped bya single mind ; this remark particularly 
applies to State scientific problems, which are invariably of a 
mixed order, requiring a great variety of attainments for their 
perfect comprehension. Lastly, subordinates are disqualified for 
the office of advisers by the very fact that they are subordinates. 
No inferior can be expected to urge distasteful counsels on a 
powerful superior, and no superior can be expected to abandon 
his own preconceived ideas in consequence of the timid and 
feeble remonstrances of an inferior under his orders, Subor- 
dinates then are unfitted to be counsellors, because they must in 
the majority of cases be deficient in leisure, attainments, and 
independence. 
One clear, decided example of the inadequacy of this source of 
scientific advice is as good as a thousand. [The loss of the 
Captain was then referred to. ] 
The second expedient—temporary Committees, has been very 
largely employed for the purpose of guiding the Government 
through their scientific difficulties. There are very serious 
objections to this expedient. First, there seems to be no rule, 
either for their appointment or for their composition. If the 
Government is much pressed by public opinion (which on such 
subjects is not over-well informed), or if it sees a difficulty ahead, 
which, however, it often fails to do, a Committee is the result. 
But there is no guarantee for the proper composition of the 
Committee. There always lurks about some of the names a 
suspicion either of incompetence, or of leaning towards the sup- 
posed foregone conclusion of the Government. But, passing by 
such suspicions, there remains the fact, that the members are 
selected either by some Minister who, not being a scientific man, 
probably knows nothing about the qualifications necessary for 
conducting the proposed inquiry, or by some outside and irre- 
sponsible person to whom the Minister has applied for help. It 
is quite overlooked that the selection of the proper persons for 
conducting any given inquiry can only be made by some one 
having a knowledge of the subject of the inquiry, or of subjects 
cognate thereto ; the selection is in itself a scientific question. 
Though some temporary Committees have done good service, it 
may be safely declared that on the whole they have failed to 
| give reasonable satisfaction. 
A second objection to such Committees consists in the fact 
itself that they are temporary. As such they necessarily com- 
mence their labours, however well they may have been selected, 
with but a partial and confused knowledge of the question at 
issue, and much time is lost in gaining some insight into it, 
After much work and expense, they reach a certain stage in the 
inquiry at which a report is possible, Perhaps by that time the 
