1865.] Tlie Science and Art Department. 11 



creature lying helpless upon her couch, and when he asked her why 

 she offered up such prayers for a tyrant who had deprived her one by 

 one of her most valuable possessions, she told him that after each act 

 of spoliation, she had secretly invoked curses on his head, but that, 

 finding the sole result to be the abstraction of some of her remaining 

 property, she had now changed the tenour of her prayer . . . lest he 

 should rob her of her last cow ! It is so long since we read this story 

 that we forget whether the tyrant, whose better instincts prevailed for 

 a season, returned the poor woman her cows, of which she had been 

 plundered, or whether he was content to leave her in the possession of 

 her sole remaining property ; but, proceeding to the application of our 

 story, we feel sure that unless the Science teachers of the country 

 bestir themselves manfully they will not be left long in the undisputed 

 possession of their last cow. 



Like the tyrant in the tale, that section of the State which ought 

 to exercise a paternal influence, and watch over the interests of 

 Science and Art, is far from evoking the blessings of the community, 

 and no doubt its faithlessness has often caused, and must still con- 

 tinue to give rise to much secret distress, which the helplessness of 

 the sufferers has compelled them to bear without a murmur. 



The question, "Who is responsible for these grievous wrongs?" 

 may be easily answered by any one who has carefully watched the 

 progress of events, and the reply is aptly conveyed in the words of a 

 recent French writer on Social Reform,* who says — " A matter which, 

 in the infancy of the system, would have been managed by the Prime 

 Minister himself — which, in the growth of its intricacy, would have 

 been entrusted to a ' Director-General,' to a ' Director,' to a ' Chef- 

 de-division,' to a ' Chef-de-bureau ' — is now only understood in all its 

 details by a ' sous-chef,' whom such petitioners as happen to be well 

 directed manage to find in huge barracks of bureaucracy in Con- 

 tinental capitals. It is this ' sous-chef ' who, in the now existing state 

 of things, draws up whole batches of ' minutes,' which even the most 

 painstaking ministers must often sign unread" 



Let the reader shift the scene from Paris, or Berlin, to Whitehall 

 and South Kensington, and he will understand the secret of all that 

 mismanagement which has called forth such loud and oft-repeated 

 complaints. 



The most anomalous feature in the whole affair, however, is that 

 a glance at the past history of this Science movement serves to show 

 that it was begun in a liberal spirit by a Conservative Ministry, but 

 was continued in a spirit neither conservative nor by any means 

 liberal, by a " Liberal " Ministry. 



It may, perhaps, be suspected that in pointing oiit this circum- 

 stance, we have some political motive, beside the real question at 

 issue ; but this is, most assuredly, not the case. The circumstance 

 has been brought under our notice by persons to whom we have 

 complained of the course adopted by the State, and the reply (sug- 

 gested, no doubt, by party feelings) has often been — " Yes, it is 



* 'La Rcforrnu Sociale on France,' &c. Far M. Le Fay. 



