164 
The Martyrdom of Science . 
[March, 
met with an hostility no less pronounced. Franklin s light- 
ning condudtor, and Jenner’s discovery of vaccination, have 
been condemned from the pulpit as impious and blasphemous 
attempts to set aside the decrees of heaven. _ A similar con- 
demnation has since been pronounced against the use ot 
anesthetics, especially in midwifery. 
The late Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 
the London University, and the British Association have 
each in turn passed through a tempest of abuse. The last 
mentioned body, indeed, is still regularly preached at in 
every town which it visits. 
In France the Chancellor, D’Aguesseau, refused a licence 
to print Voltaire’s “ Letters on England,” because the 
author therein expounded the discoveries of Newton, and 
disproved the vortex theory of Descartes. For adopting 
Locke’s denial of innate ideas, a “ lettre de cacnet was 
issued against Voltaire, and he was compelled to seek safety 
in flight. More recently the freedom of science seems to be 
recognised in France, Germany, and even in Ita y. e mu ® 
not, however, forget that the Roman Church has ne 
formally retraced her claim to adjudicate upon scientific 
truth. An “ Index,” of proscribed books is still issued, and 
within the present century Pope Gregory, in an encyclical 
letter, characterised the freedom of the press as deterrima 
ilia ac nunquam satis execranda et detestabilis libertas artis 
1 i t GTcLri 96 . * * 
In Britain the anti-scientific spirit still lingers more 
decidedly than elsewhere. Its chief lurking-places are some- 
times said to be among the clergy and country gentlemen. 
We are not sure that this view is correCt. Passing through 
a street in one of our northern manufacturing towns, the 
present writer once heard a demagogue addressing a cmwd 
on something which he contended must be put down that 
something was science! We are bound to say that his 
listeners gave every mark of sympathy and approval. The 
manner in which inventors have often been treated in 
different parts of England seems to show that such feelings 
are widely spread. The country which first wins over her 
working-classes to favour invention, and to become them- 
selves inventors, will command the industrial supremacy of 
the world. America is fast attaining this objeft by her 
patent system, which enables even a poor man to secure his 
property in an invention. Our statesmen, Whig and Tory- 
alike, can scarcely be restrained from laying additional 
difficulties in the way of patent right. 
If we now, summing up, seek to know who have been the 
