1 878.] 
The British Association. 
53i 
original investigation, we should very soon have an army of 
zealous and competent workers. The plan of appointing a 
staff of original workers unconnected with teaching had 
been proposed; but he did not approve of it. The original 
worker is, as a rule, the best teacher, and the rising genera- 
tion of students should not be deprived of the advantage of 
this instruction. No doubt the Government Grant Fund 
did a good deal for science, but the field of its operations is, 
under present conditions, limited. Professors, as a rule, are 
so occupied with teaching that they cannot avail themselves 
of the fund ; and of those students who might be competent 
and willing, very few can afford to do so. Instead of trust- 
ing to the precarious and insufficient support of the fund, 
they must endeavour to settle themselves permanently in 
life. It was much to be regretted that the Universities of 
Oxford and Cambridge, with such splendid revenues at their 
disposal, should contribute so little to the advancement 
of physical science. He hoped the day was not far distant 
when the fellowships — or at least a few of them — which 
now go to reward young men for merely passing a good 
examination, shall be given without examination to men who 
shall have advanced human knowledge in any department. 
At present a fellowship of £250 or £300 a-year, lasting ten 
or twelve years, and in some cases for life, may be obtained 
on showing proof of a good memory — or, at most, a capacity 
for assimilating other men’s ideas. To make discoveries — - 
to follow out a new train of thought, and establish it by 
experiments specially devised to that end, has been left not 
only without reward, but almost without recognition in our 
two principal seats of learning. The world at large, ignorant 
as it is. has a sounder instindf on this subject, and the man 
who makes the humblest addition to the stock of knowledge 
in the world rarely fails to receive the world’s respedt and 
honour. Professor Simpson concluded by saying that these 
suggestions could not be well carried out unless the Govern- 
ment takes into its own hands the appointment to all scientific 
chairs. Of this he thought he saw indications. He be- 
lieved that sooner or later the Government will assume the 
supreme direction of education in this country. It has 
already taken primary education under its control, and 
quite recently, in Ireland, intermediate education to a 
great extent. And did the appointment of so many Univer- 
sity Commissions not show a disposition on the part of the 
Government to assume the direction of higher education 
also ? 
2 M2 
