266 



NA rURE 



[Jan. 20, 1887 



was the recognition on the part of those persons who 

 were best able to judge of what were the wants of the 

 industry of the time, that, if they were to be developed 

 in a way proportionate to their importance, they must 

 be developed by scientific methods and by the help of 

 a thoroughly scientific organisation. A great distinction 

 was commonly drawn by some philosophic friends of his 

 between what they called militarism and what they called 

 industrialism, very much to the advantage of the latter. 

 He by no means disputed that position ; but he would ask 

 any one who was cognisant of the facts of the case, who 

 had paid attention to what was meant by modern industry 

 pursued by the methods now followed, whether, after all, 

 it was not war under the forms of peace.'' It was per- 

 fectly true that the industrial warfare was followed by 

 results far more refined in their character than those 

 which followed in the track of military warfare. It did not 

 break heads and shed blood, but it starved. The man 

 who succeeded in the war of competition and the nation 

 which succeeded in the war of competition beat their 

 opponents by his starvation. It was a hard thing to say, 

 but the plain simple fact of the case was that industrial 

 competition among the peoples of the world at the present 

 time was warfare which must be carried on by the means 

 of warfare. In what respect did modern warfare differ 

 from ancient warfare ? It differed because it had allied 

 itself with science, because it trusted in knowledge, or- 

 ganisation, and discipline, and not in mere physical strength 

 and numbers, because it took advantage of every scientific 

 discovery by which the weapons of oftence and defence 

 could be perfected, and because it required the highest 

 possible information on the part of those who were 

 engaged in that warfare ; and if the peaceful warfare of 

 industrialism was to succeed it must follow the same 

 methods. The operations of the leaders of industry must 

 be organised ; they must call to their aid, as military 

 leaders were doing, every possible help which was to be 

 gathered from science. They all knew what help science 

 was already giving to industry ; it would not do to remain 

 contented with this accidental aid, but those who con- 

 ducted industrial operations should be trained and disci- 

 plined in those difierent branches of human knowledge 

 which dealt with the needs and wants of nations and with 

 the distribution of commodities. This country had dropped 

 astern in the race for want of that education which was 

 obtained elsewhere in the highest branches of industry 

 and commerce. It had dropped astern in the race for 

 want of instruction in technical education which was given 

 elsewhere to the artisan ; and if they desired to keep up 

 that industrial predominance which was the foundation of 

 the Empire, and which, if it failed, would cause the whole 

 fabric of the State to crumble — if they desired to see want 

 and pauperism less common than unhappily they were at 

 present, they must remember that one of the chief means 

 of diminishing those evils was the organisation of industry 

 in the manner in which they understood organisation in 

 science, that they must strain every nerve to train the 

 intelligence that served industry to its highest point, and 

 to keep the industrial products of England at the head of 

 the markets of the world. He looked, therefore, on the 

 Institute as the first formal recognition of this great fact 

 — that our people were becoming alive to the necessity of 

 organisation of industry and the improvement of industrial 

 knowledge. It was on that ground that he supported the 

 proposition. It appeared to him that it would be a worthy 

 and fitting memorial of Her Majesty's reign, if they created 

 an institution which permanently represented that which 

 was the great and characteristic feature of the period, that 

 which would mark the Victorian epoch in history as the 

 epochs of Augustus and Pericles had been marked. An 

 Institute having such objects and purposes as had been 

 described appeared to him to be a monument not only 

 more lasting than brass but one which for centuries to 

 come would hold before the people an image of the objects 



after which they had to strive, if they desired to organise 

 their activities in such a manner as would lead to their 

 perennial welfare." 



This admirable statement by Prof. Huxley it is to be 

 hoped will be read by everybody interested in the 

 welfare of Greater Britain. It will not be enough, 

 however, to see that the army of peace is alone organised 

 within one Institute only, however Imperial it may be. 



Our chief want now is knowledge in high places. We 

 do not forget that in our present Prime Minister we have 

 a patient student of science, and one who knows the 

 need of it for the country. But there are a thousand 

 ways in which the ignorance, or rather let us say the want 

 of scientific instruction and of appreciation of the fact 

 that a modern State can only be great on account of its 

 commerce and of its superiority in all international rela- 

 tions, and that greatness in these directions depends upon 

 knowledge, is doing this country great harm. 



We are not without signs that this also is being 

 recognised. The Times, in a remarkable leading article 

 the other day, pointing out the importance of meteoro- 

 logy — and the moral it draws would have been equally 

 true of any other branch of knowledge — writes as 

 follows : — 



" Meteorology is a science of great practical import- 

 ance and of great speculative interest, which is pursued 

 in this country under considerable disadvantages. The 

 Atlantic starves it on one side, and the Treasury on the 

 other. It exists within an area of permanent depres- 

 sion. The Government does dole out something for 

 its support, but it takes a large part of it back in 

 the shape of telegrams. While the Atlantic curtails 

 our horizontal information of the condition of the 

 atmosphere, Nature has given us mountains which 

 ofter valuable opportunities for vertical investigation. A 

 few earnest men of science and public-spirited citizens 

 have set up an observatory on Ben Nevis at a cost of 

 more than five thousand pounds, and, beyond allowing 

 twopence in the shilling upon telegrams despatched from 

 the top, the Government, we believe, does nothing for its 

 support. It even charges a heavy rent for the telegraph- 

 wire. This nation thinks nothing of wasting, by im- 

 provident method, in the building of a single ironclad 

 as much money as would maintain all our scientific 

 establishments for a decade. But while there is the most 

 indefensible squandering of public money at the War 

 Office and the Admiralty, there is the meanest parsimony 

 towards science and scientific education — the only things 

 that, as Prof Huxley pointed out the other day, can save us 

 from being crushed in the fierce competition of peace, 

 which kills as surely as that of war. The Treasury knows 

 in a vague sort of way what an ironclad is, but we doubt 

 whether there are three men in the department who could 

 give an intelligent definition of physics." 



Assuming that the Times' estimate of the knowledge 

 available at the Treasury is exact, our point is that it is 

 the system and not the individuals who should bear the 

 blame. Nor is the Treasury the only department in 

 which a knowledge of science is imperative, or in which 

 successive Ministries have taken no action to provide it. 



It is well that all these questions should now be raised, 

 and the more questions of this order are raised by the 

 Institute movement the better for us will it be. 



