xliv 
REPORT-1854. 
views above expressed as to the disposal of the pension fund, would render 
absolutely nugatory, so far as science and its cultivators are concerned, all 
the benevolent intentions which Parliament and the country must be supposed 
to have entertained in their favour when the provision in question was created. 
“That the grant of a pension would be an inappropriate method of recom¬ 
pensing scientific merit when possessed by those who may be properly termed 
rich, I am not disposed to deny ; but if it were hereafter to be understood 
that the receipt of a pension from the Crown were full as much the indica¬ 
tion of absolute poverty, as an acknowledgment of high intellectual attain- 
ment, we apprehend that the object of the grant would be hereafter hut ill 
attained. 
“Had such a view of the intention of Parliament been formallr 
announced, the honoured names of Airy and of Owen, of Hamilton anil 
Adams, would never have appeared on the pension list; and that small 
encouragement to abstract science w hich has hitherto lieen dispensed bv the 
m?n°f Ver J ?. Cn k WOnI ' 1 virtual, y havc been withdrawn;—the bounty of 
IndZrj - he CWn r U,d haVC Io «*«l upon in the light of aims, 
Dublfc iVITT** '- V0 . U1(I n0t , hav .° oonsentetI to be paraded before the 
ciation of thp Considering your lordship’s known appre- 
unon a nation wT U ’f °, ht *?* r *> «« ^po we may also add of 
upon the pZrri; P • PPndS S ° e “? nti «»»y for '«* prosperity and even safety 
J cannot but\’\nrpL ,m P rovemt ‘ nt m every branch of intellectual exertion, 
earnest hope that vour° w!u ^' V " •/| Brn,u l 0,1 that °f my colleagues, our 
pensions, and refrain from JT r* reconsider your views of the object of 
cannot be otherwise than n . conditions for tlieir enjoyment which 
of their pursuit and *““5? B " who >‘ave a %»■ «n m of the dignity 
pursuit, and may possibly be considered as tending to degrade it 
" To the Earl of Aberdeen, &c.” “ 1 rcniaiD > **, tl WrottesLK ,- | 
. “MyLord,—T he letter t n “ Downing Street, Morcli 29tb, 1854. 
in answer to an application fill? * 1 addressed to Lord Kossc in October last, 
pension of two hundred a year to p Ve ,. ra distinguished scientific men fora 
a private explanation of the motive! P ? illi P 8 » wa * intended rather as 
tnbutton of the Civil List p," c 1 ,a,J P*’»ctieally regulated my dis- 
on the subject. But, with the as * a y io S down any fixed principle 
and after rally C o n ,iJ e ri“ l fnr ^Lordship*. CoLi.tte, 
q ™r ic by me *° Lord R" s i k,,o ' v that 1 can 
farniT^° Pf rsons more or less conner!!?| l ^ P OSs ‘bIe, to appropriate these Pen- 
Snce es ; T> Ut the Vote of the hS 2 Seience or literiture, or to their 
Pa r n ‘ , p L‘ e general belief that these r;?!"? ” S 't, 0u1 '! inc,udc a much wider 
it is ri-rht *. exc,asiv fly for science and lit 1 ,^ Kst Pensions were intended by 
, “ T& bo clearly “ ^ ether hcomct ’ aw ‘ 
only 8 ™ C i? “ n ,°‘ esecedtag h - v "1'icl. lie Qaeen was enabled 
on thf R„yrf “»* year, .o such persons 
by their useful J h C ?own, by the perk,, ,™" fi n ~ e ’ or who by their per- 
urts, have merited****” 6 * in fcc ‘eDce P a ncl -ittrlif 0 ° f du . t ^ e f. to ,he P ubIic - or 
gratitude of their « ^ £ racious considerat?^ m lif erature and the 
“it is obvious that^T ° f tbe ' r sovorei g n > and the 
pended according to '° l ° SUm of £1200 m* w 
appropriated to SP J!, 1 torms of the Act r .,° tll, ^ llt v «y easily be ex- 
nce and literature. j n r| P *** P orf >on of it being 
ec ’ -bis great latitude has occa- 
