THE QUARTERLY 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



JANUAEY, 1865. 



ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 



THE SCIENCE AND ART DEPARTMENT. 



In the Introduction to this Journal we announced, as a portion of our 

 programme, the discussion of Scientific questions allied to politics,* 

 and we referred more especially to the action of the Department of 

 Science and Art in promoting Science instruction throughout Great 

 Britain. 



This intention we have hitherto fulfilled only so far as to publish 

 on two occasions the lists of gold medallists at the State Examinations ; 

 but in our last Number we promised to devote a portion of our space 

 to the consideration of the whole subject, and that we now propose to 

 carry out with strict impartiality. The last observation is rendered 

 necessary by the fact, that the criticisms with which we shall feel it 

 our duty to accompany a brief review of the history of the South 

 Kensington Science movement, will not be of the most flattering kind, 

 so far as they concern those persons who have directed the scheme 

 during the last three or four years ; but the only personal feeling we 

 have in the matter, is one of regret, that a movement which we have 

 endeavoured earnestly, though humbly, to promote by word and deed, 

 should present so unfavourable a retrospect, and be marked by such 

 grave acts of injustice as those by which we shall find it to be charac- 

 terized. Inviting our readers, more especially the uninitiated, to follow 

 with us the history of the scheme from its commencement, we find that 

 in the year 1859, only five years since, the Committee of Council on 

 Education, of which Lord Salisbury was then the President, offered to 

 professional men who had been favoured with a scientific education, a 

 moderate but honourable remuneration, to induce them to enlist in the 

 service of the State, for the purpose of extending the usefulness of the 

 Science and Art Department ; and they further sought to secure for 

 their excellent project the honorary aid of persons throughout the 

 length and breadth of the land, who, from purely disinterested motives 



* ' Quarterly Journal of Science,' vol. i. pp. 21, 22. 

 VOL. U. B 



