FOREIGN RESEARCH ORGANISATIONS 135 



the matters submitted to it, and it then makes 

 certain recommendations as to the manner in 

 which a legislative remedy can be attained. In 

 case it should make a too exhaustive inquiry, the 

 subjects which it may investigate are always strictly 

 limited by its "terms of reference."^ It usually 

 " sits " for a number of years, after which it 

 publishes a report, the bulk of which is greatly 

 augmented by the " minutes of evidence," contain- 

 ing, among a mass of valueless statements, all the 

 useful information which it has been possible to 

 obtain by the cumbrous method consecrated by 

 long usage. Finally, one must not omit to note 

 that, when the whole matter has ceased to attract 

 public attention, the report is presented, and is 

 then decently interred in the Libraries among the 

 Parliamentary Papers of the year. By this time 

 another government may have succeeded that 

 which secured the appointment of the Commission ; 

 but whether or not this is the case, the result is 

 usually the same — the whole thing has ceased to 

 excite any interest, and the recommendations of the 

 Commission are soon forgotten and are quietly 

 ignored. 



The constitution and methods of the Kiel Kom- 

 mission are entirely different from those which I 

 have indicated above. When, in 1870, it became 

 apparent that little was known of the natural 



1 The scrupulous care taken so as not to exceed the "terms of 

 reference " extorts our unwilling admiration. 



