288 
NATURE 
[ Fan. 13, 1870 
be impossible, for there are only 375,000 Turks in the 
province, most of whom reside in the towns in all parts of 
Bulgaria, while the total population is between four and 
five millions. Evidently M. Lejean reckoned among his 
Turks the Mahometan Bulgarians, who reside for the 
most part in the eastern districts. : 
The whole of this valuable little pamphlet is contained 
in seventeen pages, and its usefulness is considerably in- 
creased bya goodmap. The map embraces all the country 
occupied by the Southern Slavonians, from Galicia to the 
/Egean Sea, and seems to be very accurate ; but it is a pity 
that Dr. Petermann did not leave out the shading of the 
mountains. This, in a map on sucha small scale, is totally 
useless for topographical purposes, and only occupies 
space which would be much more profitably employed by 
the insertion of more names of places, besides obscuring 
the names which already exist. The districts inhabited 
by Slavonians are painted green, thus showing at a glance 
their geographical position. It would have been better 
to distinguish by a different colour the Bulgarians—who, 
like the Russians, are Slavonians grafted on a Turanian 
stock, from the pure Slavonians, such as the Servians, 
Croats, and Ruthenians. 
LSRUIMBIGS, TO) MEU VILO TNO 
[Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 
by his Correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous 
communications. | 
Government Aid to Science 
I VENTURE to hope that you will allow me space in your 
columns t6 express opinions on this subject which are not popular 
with scientific men, and which are evidently opposed to your own 
views as indicated in your recent article on Science Reform. 
The public mind seems now to be going mad on the subject of 
education; the Government is obliged to give way to the 
clamour, and men of science seem inclined to seize the oppor- 
tunity to get, if possible, some share in the public money. Art 
education is already to a considerable extent supplied by the 
State, —technical education (which I presume means education in 
“the arts”) is vigorously pressed upon the Goyernment, —and 
Science also is now urging her claims toa modicum of State 
patronage and support. 
Now, sir, I protest most earnestly against the application of 
public money to any of the above specified purposes, as radically 
vicious in principle, and as being in the present state of society a 
positive wrong. In order to clear the ground let me state that, 
for the purpose of the present argument, I admit the right and 
duty of the State to educate its citizens. I uphold national 
education, but I object absolutely to all sectional or class educa- 
tion; and all the above-named schemes are simply forms of class 
education. The broad principle I go upon is this,—that the 
State has no moral right to apply funds raised by the taxation 
of all its members to any purpose which is not directly available 
for the benefit of all. As it has no right to give class preferences 
in legislation, so it has no right to give class preferences in the 
expenditure of public money. If we follow this principle, 
national education is not forbidden, whether given in schools 
supported by the State, or in museums, or galleries, or gardens, 
fairly distributed over the whole kingdom, and so regulated as to 
be equally available for the instruction and amusement of all 
classes of the community. But here a line mustbe drawn, The 
schools, the museums, the galleries, the gardens, must all alike be 
popular (that is, adapted for and capable of being fully used and 
enjoyed by the people at large), and must be developed by means 
of public money to such an extent only as is needful for the 
highest attainable AopwZar instruction and benefit. All beyond 
this should be left to private munificence, to societies, or to the 
classes benefited, to supply. 
In art, all that is needed only for the special instruction of 
artists, or for the delight of amateurs, should be provided by 
artists and amateurs. To expend public money on third-rate 
prints or pictures, or on an intrinsically worthless book, both of 
immense value on account of their rarity, and as such of great 
interest to a small class of literary and art amateurs and to them 
only, I conceive to be absolutely wrong. So, in.science, to pro- 
vide museums such as will at once elevate, instruct, and enter- 
tain all who visit them is a worthy and a just expenditure of 
public money ; but to spend many times as much as is necessary 
for this purpose in forming enormous collections of all the rarities 
that can be obtained, however obscure and generally uninteresting 
they may be, and however limited the class who can value or 
appreciate them, is, as plainly, an unjust expenditure. It will, 
perhaps, surprise some of your readers to find a naturalist advo- 
cating such doctrines as these ; but though I love nature much I 
love justice more, and would not wish that any man should be 
compelled to contribute towards the support of an institution of 
no interest to the great mass of my countrymen, however inte- 
resting to myself. ‘ 
For the same reason I maintain that all schools of art or of 
science, or for technical education, should be supported by the 
parties who are directly interested in them or benefited by them. 
If designs are not forthcoming for the English manufacturer, and 
he is thus unable to compete with foreigners, who should provide 
schools of design but the manufacturers and the pupils who are 
the parties directly interested ? It seems to me as entirely beyond 
the proper sphere of the functions of the State to interfere in this 
matter as it would be to teach English bootmakers or English 
cooks at the public expense in order that they may be able to 
compete with French aytistes in these departments. In both 
cases such interference amounts to protection and class legisla- 
tion, and I have yet to learn that these can be justified by the 
urgent necessity of our producing shawls and calicoes, or hard- 
ware and crockery, as elegantly designed as those of our neigh- 
bours. And if our men of science want more complete labora- 
tories, or finer telescopes, or more expensive apparatus of any 
kind, who but our scientific associations and the large and wealthy 
class now interested in science should supply the want? They 
have hitherto done so nobly, and I should myself feel that it was 
better that the march of scientific discovery should be a little less 
rapid (and of late years the pace has not been bad), than that 
Science should descend one step from her lofty independence and 
sue 27 formd paiperjs to the already overburthened taxpayer. So 
if our mechanics are not so well able as they might be to improve 
the various arts they are engaged in, surely the parties who ought 
to provide them with the special education required are the great 
employers of labour, who by their assistance are daily building 
up colossal fortunes; and that great and wealthy class which 
is, professionally or otherwise, interested in the constructive or 
decorative arts. 
I maintain further, not only that the money spent by Govern- 
ment for the purposes here indicated is wrongly spent, but also 
that itis in a great measure money wasted. ‘The best collectors 
are usually private amateurs, the best workers are usually home 
students or the employés of scientific associations, not of govern- 
ments. Could any Government institution have produced re- 
sults so much superior to those produced by our Royal Institution, 
with its Davy, Faraday, and Tyndall, as to justify the infringe- 
ment of a great principle? Would the grand series of scientific 
and mechanical inventions of this century have been more tho- 
roughly and more fruitfully worked out, if Government had taken 
science and invention under its special patronage in the year 
1800, and had subjected them to a process of forcing from that 
day to this? No one can really believe that we should have got 
on any better under such a 7égze, while it is certain that much 
power would have been wasted in the attempt to develop inven- 
tions and discoveries before the age was ripe for them, and which 
would therefore have inevitably languished and been laid aside 
without producing any great results. Experience shows that 
public competition ensures a greater supply of the materials and 
a greater demand for the products of science and art, and is thus 
a greater stimulus to true and healthy progress than any Govern- 
ment patronage. Let it but become an established rule that all 
institutions solely for the advancement of science and art must 
be supported by private munificence, and we may be sure that 
such institutions would be quite as well supported as they are 
now, and I believe much hetter. If they were not, it would 
only prove more clearly how unjust it is to take money from the 
public purse to pay for that which science-and-art-amateurs would 
ey much like to have, but are not willing themselves to pay 
or. 
The very common line of argument which attempts to prove 
the wide-spread uses and high educating influences of art and of 
science, are utterly beside the question. Every product of the 
human intellect is more or less valuable ; but it does not therefore 
follow that it is just to provide any particular product for those 
who want it, at the expense of those who either do not want, or are 
