On the Museum of Practical Geology of Great Britain. 233 



wealth, have analogous institutions, attention will be drawn to 

 the following points. 



First. What real benefits will be derived from our estab- 

 lishment, if it be duly encouraged as a higher School of Mines? 



Second. What may result, if it be rendered subordinate to 

 the system of the general education of the country ? 



It is wholly unnecessary to comment upon the desirableness 

 of a complete geological survey of the British Isles, as first es- 

 tablished at the suggestion of my lamented predecessor, Sir 

 Henry De la Beche, which has now been successfully in action for 

 nearly twenty years, and which, whilst it affords the most import- 

 ant information respecting the composition of the sub-soil, has 

 been considered by all persons eminent in geological and mining 

 science, to have been conducted with surpassing skill. 



This survey, which is the base of the whole establishment, has 

 its analogue in most civilized lands,- and the country void of it 

 must remain ignorant of that knowledge of the crust of the earth 

 which is indispensable in every effort to promote the material 

 interest of man. Acting on this principle, each government of 

 the Great American Republic has its state geologist, just as the 

 continental governments of Europe have colleges and schools 

 specially adapted to the instruction of miners, the chief and 

 active officers of which construct the geological maps of their 

 respective regions. 



The object, therefore, of my predecessor was to induce the 

 British government and Parliament to emulate other countries, 

 by adding to the survey an illustrative Museum and a School of 

 Mines; so that England, which, through the spirit and enterprise 

 of individuals, had already taken a prominent lead in geological 

 science, and had seen her own insular names rendered classical 

 throughout the scientific world, might also possess a central 

 school for sound instruction, not only in geology, mining, and 

 mineralogy, but also in the essentially connected sciences of nat- 

 ural history, chemistry, metallurgy, mechanics and physics. 



The effects which have resulted from our teaching have been 

 beneficially felt both at home and through the most distant re- 

 gions, inasmuch as our school has already afforded geological and 

 mining surveyors to many of our colonies in the East Indies, 

 Australia, and the Cape ; whilst at this moment the legislature 

 and governments of the West Indies are petitioning for mineral 

 surveyors of their respective islands, and Her Majesty's govern- 

 ment joining, as I am happy to say, in this enlightened and lib- 

 eral movement, have applied to me to recommend suitable per- 

 sons for such employments. 



In relation to Britain, I may be permitted here to suggest, that 

 the encouragement which is now offered to our School ofcMines 

 might at once receive considerable stimulus by a declaration on 



SECOND SERIES, VOL. XXII, NO. 65. — SEPT., 1856. 



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