NATORE . 
497 
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1885 
PUBLIC OPINION AND STATE AID TO 
SCIENCE 
A LTHOUGH Sir Lyon Playfair’s address was probably 
4 listened to by a large number of members of the 
British Association as that of a man of science, there can 
be no doubt that to the vast majority of people outside it 
came as the utterance of a practical statesman. It was 
the Chairman of Committees of the House of Commons, 
the member of Parliament, the man of affairs who spoke, 
and the address was largely in keeping with these 
characters, for, as one writer has expressed it, it smells 
not so much of the laboratory as of the House of 
Commons. The subject of the endowment of research, 
of State aid to science, has been before the public for 
many years, and has been discussed under various cir- 
cumstances, but it has never attracted at any one time 
the same earnest and general attention that it has since 
Sir Lyon Playfair’s address. This is due not less to the 
pedestal on which the speaker was placed, than to the 
character and career of the speaker himself. The result 
has been that the guides and instructors of public opinion 
all over the country have felt it necessary to address 
themselves to the subject, and it is therefore possible now 
to gain some idea of the general drift of the public mind 
on the question of the claims of science on the State, and 
of the manner in which these claims should be met, 
Happily it is a question which men of all shades of 
opinion can consider without having their vision obscured 
by party passion and prejudice. As we go on it will be 
seen that the advocates of the doctrine of /azssez faire 
are not absent ; but, on the whole, those who have for so 
long maintained that the country, for the sake of its own 
happiness and prosperity and in order to maintain its 
place amongst other nations, must bring the teachings of 
science to its aid, have every ground for satisfaction. 
To gauge public opinion on this question, in some 
measure, we have taken many of the leading journals of 
the metropolis, and propose to state briefly their views on 
this particular part of the Presidential Address. As will 
be seen, all shades of opinion are represented. 
The 7zmes acknowledges the reproach that countries 
less wealthy than our own make efforts to encourage 
science, by the side of which the encouragement afforded 
in England to science by the State sinks into insignific- 
ance ; but it urges that, after all, the State is very much 
what the individuals who compose it choose to make it. 
Until public opinion exists in an organised and effective 
shape, the demand for the encouragement of science by 
the State will be addressed, for the most part, to a faith- 
less and unbelieving generation. It points, as do a large 
number of other writers, to our ancient endowments for 
the benefit of education, and says that, although it may be 
conceded that they are still largely misapplied, they could 
be almost indefinitely increased, without direct assistance 
from the State, if vested interests and lack of intelligent 
initiative did not so often stand in the way. Until these 
obstacles are removed by the pressure of an active and 
enlightened public opinion, the State itself can hardly be 
expected to do much more than it does. The 7zmzes, there- 
fore, acknowledges the need, and suggests that it should be 
VOL. XXXII.—No. 830 
met by the proper application of our existing educational 
endowments. 
The Standard is as anxious as the President to see 
our Universities fully, and even lavishly, equipped for 
the prosecution of research ; but it will not allow that 
they are so miserably starved as he would lead us to 
believe :-— 
“Sir Lyon Playfair falls into the vulgar error of reckon- 
ing as national expenditure on a given object only the 
outlay provided from taxation. Our Universities have 
resources which ought to be set against the State pro- 
vision made in other countries for the same purposes. 
We are not, therefore, disposed to join in the outcry 
against the results of our English system. We believe 
that private benefactions and private enterprise have done 
much and are capable of doing more, and doing it better, 
than the State can do. We are not ashamed of the con- 
dition of scientific studies in England, and we claim for 
our countrymen a leading place among those who have 
built up the fabric of knowledge and promoted the well- 
being of man.” 
The Daily Telegraph likewise refers to private munifi- 
cence which in the past has done in this country what State 
aid has to do at present in Continental countries, and it 
urges that scientific people should set before themselves, 
as their proper aim, to convince public opinion that the 
teaching of a far greater amount of science is necessary 
in our schools which are richly enough endowed. 
The Morning Post maintains that Sir Lyon Playfair 
has conclusively demonstrated that we do not in respect 
to scientific education keep abreast of other countries, 
and in the same proportion as we allow ourselves to be 
distanced do we deny ourselves the means and the oppor- 
tunities of developing our industrial and physical re- 
sources The money laid out in the manner indicated 
by Dr. Playfair, it says, would be well expended, and 
would in time be returned a hundredfold to the Imperial 
Exchequer. 
The Daily News regards the address as singularly 
interesting and practical. It is a powerful and, as many 
will think, a conclusive plea for giving science a larger 
and a better place in modern life. Sir Lyon Playfair is a 
practical statesman, and suggests only practical measures. 
We must not only greatly enlarge our educational 
machinery, but must at the same time modernise it and 
bring it into direct relation to modern needs. 
The Morning Advertiser eulogises the address because 
every word of it is directed to the one moral, “ Educate, 
educate, educate.” Never has the cause of scientific 
education been urged in a manner which commends itself 
more to common sense and conviction than in the singu- 
larly well-reasoned monologue wherein Sir Lyon Playfair, 
from the platform of the British Association, hits a 
national danger at the same time that he shows the means 
of correcting it. 
The Pal/ Mall Gazette pronounces a verdict in favour 
of Sir Lyon Playfair as clearly and decidedly as the 
Morning Post. It says :— 
“No one will be surprised that Sir Lyon Playfair 
should have selected for the subject ‘of his address the 
*Relation of Science to the State, and when that is once 
explained it goes without saying that he made a very 
cogent plea for an establishment and endowment of 
science. This plea, it is perfectly certain, cannot be 
much longer refused. The Laissez-faire Society must 
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