36 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
That report having been approved of by the Association, an 
influential deputation waited on Her Majesty’s G-overnment, to 
suggest the appointment of a Commission ; and accordingly in May 
1870 such a Commission was appointed. 
This Commission has been most diligent in its investigation and 
discussion of the several points remitted to it. They have exa- 
mined several hundred witnesses, and have issued no less than 
eight reports. 
Besides ascertaining the condition of our universities, colleges, 
and endowed first-class schools, as regards their teaching power, and 
suggesting in many cases that assistance should be given to them 
by the State, the Commissioners took up the other important 
question, to which the British Association specially had called 
attention — viz. this, whether the State ought not to aid researches 
for discovering new scientific facts and truths. 
As the report of the Commissioners on this question is of great 
interest alike to men of science and to scientific bodies in this 
country, 1 quote a few sentences to show the opinion of these 
Koyal Commissioners, and the advice they give to Her Majesty’s 
Government : — 
( ‘ The great advances in physical science which have been made 
in this country, and within this century, by such men as Dalton, 
Davy, and Faraday, without aid from the State; the existence of 
numerous learned societies ; and the devotion of some few rich 
individuals to the current work of science, at first sight appear to 
reduce the limits within which State aid to research is required in 
this country. 
“ But whilst we have reason to be proud of the contributions 
of some great Englishmen to our knowledge of the laws of 
nature, it must be admitted that at the present day scientific 
investigation is carried on abroad to an extent, and with a com- 
pleteness of organisation to which this country can offer no parallel. 
The work done in this country by private individuals, although of 
great value, is small when compared with that which is needed in 
the interests of science ; and the efforts of the learned societies, 
not excepting the Boyal Society, are directed merely to the dis- 
cussion and publication of the scientific facts brought under their 
