426 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 457. 



Without such a machinery as this, how 

 can our ]\Iinisters and our rulers be kept 

 completely informed on a thousand things 

 of vital importance? Why should our po- 

 sition and requirements as an industrial 

 and thinking nation receive less attention 

 from the authorities than the headdress of 

 the Guards? How, in the words of Lord 

 Curzon,* can 'the life and vigor of a na- 

 tion be summed up before the world in the 

 person of its sovereign' if the national or- 

 ganization is so defective that it has no 

 means of keeping the head of the State in- 

 formed on things touching the most vital 

 and lasting interests of the country? We 

 seem to be still in the Paleolithic age in 

 such matters, the chief difference being 

 that the sword has replaced the flint imple- 

 ment. 



Some may say that it is contrary to our 

 habit to expect the Government to interest 

 itself too much or to spend money on mat- 

 ters relating to peace ; that war dangers are 

 the only ones to be met or to be studied. 



But this view leaves science and the prog- 

 ress of science out of the question. Every 

 scientific advance is now, and will in the 

 future be more and more, applied to war. 

 It is no longer a question of an armed force 

 with scientific corps, it is a question of an 

 armed force scientific from top to bottom. 

 Thank God the Navy has already found 

 this out. Science will ultimately rule all 

 the operations both of peace and war, and 

 therefore the industrial and the fighting 

 population must both have a large common 

 groiind of education. Already it is not 

 looking too far ahead to see that in a per- 

 fect 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 work- 



* Times, September 30, 1902. 



shop will be assimilated, the land unit, like 

 the battleship, will become a school of ap- 

 plied science, self-contained, in which the 

 officers will be the efficient teachers. 



I do not think it is yet recognized 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 scien- 

 tific 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 yonv loins and see to it 

 that the science of the British Empire shall 

 no longer remain imorganized. I have en- 

 deavored to point out to you how the na- 

 tion 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 universi- 

 ties 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 endeavored to show how, 

 when this is done, the nation wiU stiU 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 coordination 

 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 organization which I trust you 

 will determine to found would risk suc- 

 cess in working on such large lines, let 

 me remind joii that in 1859, when the late 

 Prince Consort occupied this chair, he re- 

 ferred to 'impediments' in scientific prog- 



