28 REPORT— 1903. 



from top to bottom. Thank God the Navy has ah-eady found this out. 

 Science will ultimately rule all the operations both of peace and war, and 

 therefore the industrial and the lighting population must both have a 

 large common ground of education. Already it is not looking too far 

 ahead to see that in a perfect State there will be a double use of each 

 citizen — a peace use and a war use ; and the more science advances, the 

 more the old difference between the peaceful citizen and the man at arms 

 will disappear. The barrack, if it still exists, and the workshop will be 

 assimilated ; the land unit, like the battleship, will become a school of 

 applied science, self-contained, in which the officers will be the efficient 

 teachers. 



I do not think it is yet recognised how much the problem of national 

 defence has thus become associated with that with which we are now 

 chiefly concerned. 



These, then, are some of the reasons which compel me to point out 

 that a scientific council, which might be a scientific committee of the Privy 

 Council, in dealing primarily with the national needs in times of peace, 

 would be a source of strength to the nation. 



To sum up, then. My earnest appeal to you is to gird up your loins 

 and see to it that the science of the British Empire shall no longer remain 

 unorganised. I have endeavoured to point out to you how the nation at 

 present suffers from the absence of a powerful, continuous, reasoned expres- 

 sion of scientific opinion, urging in season and out of season that we shall 

 be armed as other nations are, with efficient Universities and facilities 

 for research to uphold the flag of Britain in the domain of learning and 

 discovery, and what they alone can bring. 



I have also endeavoured to show how, when this is done, the nation 

 will still be less strong than it need be if there be not added to our many 

 existing councils another, to secure that even during peace the benefits 

 which a proper co-ordination of scientific effort in the nation's interest can 

 bring shall not be neglected as they are at present. 



Lest some of you may think that the scientific organisation which I 

 trust you will determine to found would risk success in working on such 

 large lines, let me remind you that in 1859, when the late Prince 

 Consort occupied this Chair, he referred to ' impediments ' to scientific 

 progress, and said, ' they are often such as can only be successfully dealt 

 with by the powerful arm of the State or the long purse of the nation.' 



If the Prince Consort had lived to continue his advocacy of science, 

 our position to-day would have been very different. His early death was 

 as bad for Britain as the loss of a great campaign. If we cannot make 

 up what we have lost, matters cannot mend. 



I have done what I feel to be my duty in bringing the present condition 

 of things before you. It is now your duty, if you agree with me, to see 

 that it be put right. You can if you will, 



