22 



NA TURE 



[May 14, 1874 



Salisbury, Lord Derby, Sir William Thomson, Prof. Bal- 

 four-Stewart, Admiral Richards, Dr. Siemens, Dr. Joule, 

 General Strachey, Dr. Frankland, besides many others. 



This may suffice to show the nature of the evidence as 

 regards the duty of the State in the matter of Abstract 

 Science and the method by which this duty should be 

 performed. In minor details, of course, there are 

 differences of opinion, but the weight of evidence is with- 

 out doubt in favour of the establishment of scientific 

 laboratories by the State, in addition to the en- 

 couragement of suitable private individuals and the sub- 

 sidising of existing institutions. Most seem to be of 

 opinion that at first central laboratories should be esta- 

 blished in London only, to be afterwards extended to the 

 provinces, and most of those examined on the subject ex- 

 pressed their decided conviction that the raerj who gave 

 up their time to the service of Science and the State in 

 these laboratories or elsewhere should be adequately re- 

 munerated, indeed be regarded as a superior class of Civil 

 servants. For example, Lord Salisbury, on the question 

 of income, suggests that men who might be appointed to 

 pursue original research by the State ought to have an 

 income of about 1,000/. or 1,500/., with a provision for 

 retirement. Other witnesses who spoke in favour of paying 

 public researchers were Lord Derby, Dr. Joule, Sir William 

 Thomson, Sir E. Sabine, Sir Stafford Northcote, Dr. 

 Siemens, Mr. Gore, the late Prof Rankine, &c. 



In order that the State may look after the interests of 

 Science and the scientific interests of the country, it 

 would of course be necessary that some well-organised 

 system should be adopted by which the intentions of the 

 State should be carried out. The great majority of those 

 examined on this point agree that this would be best accom- 

 plished by the establishment of a State ' Council of Sci- 

 ence presided over by a Minister of Science, who, how- 

 ever, some are of opinion might also be Minister of 

 Education. But that a special department, or at the 

 least, a sub-department of the State should take the 

 promotion of Abstract Science and Science in its prac- 

 tical bearings on the interests of the country under its 

 wing, seems to be the opinion of the great majority 

 of those whose opinion was asked by the Com- 

 mission on this question ; and they include many 

 of the men most eminent in Abstract as well as Ap- 

 plied Science. This State Council of Science, as we 

 have indicated, is not meant solely to look after the 

 interests of abstract scientific research in the country; 

 its time would be much, if not a great deal more, occu- 

 pied in bringing to a scientific test and advising Govern- 

 ment upon all Government projects in which scientific 

 principles are more or less involved. All are agreed that 

 the cost to the country of such a Council would be nothing 

 compared to the losses which are being continually sus- 

 tained through the haphazard projection and carrying out 

 of schemes that fail wholly or partially from not being 

 founded on strictly scientific principles. Several of the 

 witnesses, for example, refer to the unfortunate Captciin, 

 whose blundering construction would have been impos- 

 sible had the Government had such a Council to consult. 

 As to the size and composition of such a Council, opinions 

 of course differ, though many of the witnesses referred 

 with more or less approval to the long-thought-ovcr and 

 well-matured scheme of Col. Strange. 



As to some of the duties which would devolve upon such 

 a Council, we cannot do better than quote from Sir 

 William Thomson's evidence, merely reminding the 

 reader that his statement is typical of the opinions held 

 by most of the other witnesses who spoke to the ques- 

 tion : — 



" The main object of such a Council would, in my 

 opinion, be to advise the Government on all scientific ques- 

 tions which might come under the attention of the Govern- 

 ment, and on all scientific works actually undertaken. With 

 a vast amount of mechanical work which is necessarily 

 undertaken by the Government, and which is continually 

 in hand, questions involving scientific difficulties of a 

 novel character frequently occur : questions requiring 

 accurate knowledge of scientific truth hitherto undeveloped 

 are occurring every day. In both respects Government 

 is at present insufficiently advised, and the result is un- 

 doubtedly that mechanical works are sometimes not done 

 as well as they might be done, that great mistakes are 

 sometimes made : and, again, a very serious and perhaps 

 even a more serious evil of the present system, in which 

 there is not sufiicient scientific advice for the Government, 

 is the undertaking ol woiks which ought never to be 

 undertaken. . . . One great mistake undoubtedly was the 

 construction of the Captai)i, and I believe that a perma- 

 nent scientific Council advising the Government would 

 have made it impossible to commit such a mistake. They 

 would, in the very beginning, have relieved the Govern- 

 ment from all that pressure of ignorant public opinion 1 

 which the Government could not possiblj, in the present I 

 state of things, withstand." 



On the question as to whether such a Council 

 would command sufficient public confidence among men 

 of Science, the answer of Mr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S., 

 may be taken as embodying the opinion of most of 

 the other witnesses. He says : — " I have no misgivings at 

 all upon that subject. I should say that they would meet 

 with general support from men of Science. Most men of 

 Science, I think, see that something of the sort is impera- 

 tively required. All lament the piecemeal way in which 

 scientific subjects are dealt with by Government, in con- 

 sequence of their being subdivided amongst all these dif- 

 ferent offices, and of there being nobody to appeal to 

 upon a question of Science, and, therefore, I think the 

 proposal to establish such a Council would meet with 

 universal acceptation amongst scientific men.'' 



Into the questions of the size of the Council, whether 

 the members should or should not be appointed for life, 

 &c., we need not enter here ; the great point is that the 

 mass of evidence is in favour of establishing such a 

 Council, presided over by a Minister of Science. 



The question of the institution of a State Minister of 

 Science has been so often discussed in these pages that 

 we need not go into the voluminous evidence in its behalf 

 which is puljlished by the Commission. While some of 

 the witnesses think that such a Minister's functions ought 

 also to include the department of Education, most of 

 them point out that Britain is the only country in which 

 the interests of Science have no representative in the 

 Government of the country. 



It will thus be seen that the Commission has been the 

 means of eliciting from the various eminent men who have 

 come before it a complete and comprehensive scheme 

 for the promotion of Science by the State, and for giving 

 Government the means of obtaining trustworthy counsel in 

 all matters in which scientific principles are in any way iiv- 



