that I have mislaid a most interesting memorandum on this subject, which I made several years since; but I believe my memory on the point will not be found widely incorrect. A foreign gentleman, himself possessing no inconsiderable acquaintance with science, called on me a few years since, to present a letter of introduction. He had been but a short time in London; and in the course of our conversation, it appeared to me that he had imbibed very inaccurate ideas respecting our encouragement of science.

Thinking this a good opportunity of instituting a fair comparison between the emoluments of science in the two countries, I placed a sheet of paper before him, and requested him to write down the names of six Englishmen, in his opinion, best known in France for their scientific reputation. Taking another sheet of paper, I wrote upon it the names of six Frenchmen, best known in England for their scientific discoveries. We exchanged these lists, and I then requested him to place against each name (as far as he knew) the annual income of the different appointments held by that person. In the mean time, I performed the same operation on his list, against some names of which I was obliged to place a zero. The result of the comparison was an average of nearly 1200l. per annum for the six French savans whom I had named. Of the average amount of the sums received by the English, I only remember that it was very much smaller. When we consider what a command over the necessaries and luxuries of life 1200l. will give in France, it is underrating it to say it is equal to 2000l. in this country.

6

Let us now look at the prospects of a young man at his entrance into life, who, impelled by an almost irresistible desire to devote himself to the abstruser sciences, or who, confident in the energy of youthful power, feels that the career of science is that in which his mental faculties are most fitted to achieve the reputation for which he pants. What are bis prospects? Can even the glowing pencil of enthusiasm add colour to the blank before him? There are no situations in the State; there is no position in society to which hope can point, to cheer him in his laborious path. If, indeed, he belong to one of our universities, there are some few chairs in his own Alma Mater to which he may at some distant day pretend; but these are not numerous; and whilst the salaries attached are seldom sufficient for the sole support of the individual, they are very rarely enough for that of a family. What then can he reply to the entreaties of his friends, to betake himself to some business in which perhaps they have power to assist him, or to choose sume profession in which his talents may produce for him their fair reward? If he have no fortune, the choice is taken away he must give up that line of life in which his habits of thought and his ambition qualify him to succeed eminently, and he must choose the bar, or some other profession, in which, amongst so many competitors, in spite of his great talents, he can be but moderately successful. The loss to him is great, but to the country it is greater. We thus, by a destructive misapplication of talent which our institutions create, exchange a profound philosopher for but a tolerable lawyer.

If on the other hand, he possess some moderate fortune of his own; and, intent on the glory of an immortal name, yet not blindly ignorant of the state of science in this country, he resolve to make for that aspiration a sacrifice the greater, because he is fully aware of its extent;-if, so

circumstanced, he give up a business or a profession on which he might have entered with advantage, with the hope that, when he shall have won a station high in the ranks of European science, he may a little augment his resources by some of those few employments to which science leads; -if he hope to obtain some situation, (at the Board of Longitude,* for example,) where he may be permitted to exercise the talents of a philosopher for the paltry remuneration of a clerk, he will find that other qualifications than knowledge and a love of science are necessary for its attainment. He will also find that the high and independent spirit, which usually dwells in the breast of those who are deeply versed in these pursuits, is ill adapted for such appointments; and that even if successful, he must hear many things he disapproves, and raise no voice against them.

Thus, then, it appears that scarcely any man can be expected to pursue abstract science unless he possess a private fortune, and unless he can resolve to give up all intention of improving it. Yet, how few thus situated are likely to undergo the labour of the acquisition; and if they do from some irresistible impulse, what inducement is there for them to deviate one step from those inquiries in which they find the greatest delight, into those which might be more immediately useful to the public ?'―pp. 32-39.

We have been anxious that Mr. Babbage should not be restricted in the exposition of his meaning, differing as we most essentially do from the whole tenor of his doctrine. We do not doubt but that Mr. Babbage's opinion of the national importance of encouraging abstruse scientific researches, is a very just one; but he will pardon us, we are sure, if, without the lights and the discernment which led him to come to such a decision, we state our reasons for a contrary judgment. We hold it to be perfectly clear, that a government is bound by every consideration of just and useful policy to reward, in an exemplary manner, the author of every discovery which, in its results, confers a certain definite advantage on the country. The question then arises, is it lawful in that government to interpose before the direct advantage actually accrues, and, by systematic application of its resources, incite and sustain a course of studies upon the bare probability or chance, that they may ultimately lead to some practical benefit? We answer, No-and not because we despair of any advantage being produced by such means--but because the evils of such a system would more than counterbalance any possible good to be expected from it. That course seems to us the best for all parties, in every state, where the recompense is contingent on the production of the advantage. And this is only a reasonable view of the matter. It is possible, we admit, that discoveries, which at present appear to be totally inapplicable to any useful purpose, may hereafter, in other hands, be

* This body is now dissolved.

found to be capable of adding wonderfully to our convenience and our comforts. Mr. Babbage has so argued, and he has illustrated his reasoning in a most admirable manner.

The principle of the hydrostatic parodox was known as a speculative truth in the time of Stevinus, and its application to raising heavy weights has long been stated in elementary treatises on natural philosophy, as well as constantly exhibited in lectures. Yet, it may fairly be regarded as a mere abstract principle, until the late Mr. Bramah, by substituting a pump instead of the smaller column, converted it into a most valuable and powerful engine. The principle of the convertibility of the centres of oscillation and suspension in the pendulum, discovered by Huygens more than a century and a half ago, remained, until within these few years, a sterile, though most elegant proposition; when, after being hinted at by Prony, and distinctly pointed out by Bonenberger, it was employed by Captain Kater as the foundation of a most convenient practical method of determining the length of the pendulum.-The interval which separated the discovery by Dr. Black, of latent heat, from the beautiful and successful application of it to the steam engine, was comparatively short; but it required the efforts of two minds; and both were of the highest order. The influence of electricity in producing decompositions, although of inestimable value as an instrument of discovery in chemical inquiries, can hardly be said to have been applied to the practical purposes of life, until the same powerful genius which detected the principle, applied it by a singular felicity of reasoning, to arrest the corrosion of the copper-sheathing of vessels. That admirably connected chain of reasoning, the truth of which is confirmed by its very failure as a remedy, will probably at some future day supply, by its successful application, a new proof of the position we are endeavouring to establish.

Other instances might, if necessary, be adduced, to shew that long intervals frequently elapse between the discovery of new principles in science and their practical application: nor ought this at all to surprise us. Those intellectual qualifications which give birth to new principles or to new methods, are of quite a different order from those which áre necessary for their practical application.

At the time of the discovery of the beautiful theorem of Huygens, it required in its author not merely a complete knowledge of the mathematical science of his age, but a genius to enlarge its boundaries by new creations of his own. Such talents are not always united with a quick perception of the details, and of the practical applications of the principles they have developed, nor is it for the interest of mankind that minds of this high order should lavish their powers on subjects unsuited to their grasp.

'In mathematical science, more than in all others, it happens that truths which are at one period the most abstract, and apparently the most remote from all useful application, become in the next age

* About the year 1600.

the bases of profound physical inquiries, and in the succeeding one, perhaps, by proper simplification and reduction to tables, furnish their ready and daily aid to the artist and the sailor.

It may also happen that at the time of the discovery of such principles, the mechanical arts may be too imperfect to render their application likely to be attended with success. Such was the case with the principle of the hydrostatic paradox; and it was not, I believe, until the expiration of Mr. Bramah's patent, that the press which bears his name received that mechanical perfection in its execution, which has deservedly brought it into such general use.

On the other hand, for one person who is blessed with the power of invention, many will always be found who have the capacity of applying principles; and much of the merit ascribed to these applications will always depend on the care and labour bestowed in the practical detail.

If, therefore, it is important to the country that abstract principles should be applied to practical use, it is clear that it is also important that encouragement should be held out to the few who are capable of adding to the number of those truths on which such applications are founded. Unless there exist peculiar institutions for the support of such inquirers, or unless the Government directly interfere, the contriver of a thaumatrope may derive profit from his ingenuity, whilst he who unravels the laws of light and vision, on which multitudes of phenomena depend, shall descend unrewarded to the tomb.'pp. 15-19.

Quare, says an antient, non quantum quisque prosit sed quanti quisque sit, ponderandum est. This, however, is but one view of the question. Where is the line to be drawn? How shall the government be able to distinguish between the researches that carry in them the seeds of practical convenience, and those which must remain barren to the end of time? Is there not danger, then, that a system of such indiscriminate encouragement would destroy the very object for which it was instituted? and that, instead of indemnifying exalted genius during its searches after the means of serving, in some way or another, the human community, we should be keeping in our pay a national establishment of crazy mathematicians, a Sorbonne of Philomaths? * see what sort of council we may derive from facts. We apprehend

Let us

* In the course of the last month a cause was tried in the Court of King's Bench, Dublin, which involved amongst other points, one that was intimately connected with the laws of Mechanics. In the course of the inquiry it became necessary to explain what effect would be produced on the force of a current of water proceeding under the effect of considerable pressure, if, on each side, there was an opening by which the water could escape also. A senior Fellow (he being a senior Lecturer too) of the Dublin University was examined, and he pledged himself to this statement that if water be made to flow through a tube or an open con

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that it will be found that wherever the encouragement is maturely bestowed on the profound inquirers in science, there the improvement always stops with the reward. In France this has been very much the case. The men of science there have done wonders in the theoretic world, but nothing in comparison for the practical. "How scanty is our knowledge," says Mr. Herschell, as quoted by Mr. Babbage," of the suspected fluorine! Are we sure that we understand the nature of Nitrogen? Who can tell us any thing of the Sulfo Salts? Who will explain to us the laws of Isomorphism?" These are all fine questions no doubt to puzzle an Englishman. But in our turn may we humbly inquire what Thenard, by his experiments on oxygenated acids, has done for the practical art of dyeing? What has Oersted, what have Serrula and Balard, with all their knowledge of the privacies of Brome, accomplished towards increasing the comforts and conveniences of their countrymen? Nor do we wantonly put these questions, since we deem the answer to them to be the true criterion of that comparison with other nations, which Mr. Babbage has drawn so unfavourably to England. If we look to France, where the most munificent encouragement stimulates and cheers the most refined and abstruse inquiries, in vain shall we seek amongst the people any practical fruits by which such inquiries have been attended. What has French science done for the arts? How has it influenced improvement in manufactures of all kinds—how has it assisted native ingenuity? What has this vaunted French chemistry done for

duit, of uniform width, and subject to uniform pressure, and that the quantity which the tube or conduit discharges under these circumstances be ascertained, it will be found that if two additional openings be made in the sides of such tube or conduit, each of such openings being of equal area with the extreme opening of the tube, the three openings will, on the given level and with the given pressure, discharge three times the quantity of water which was in the first instance discharged by the open tube. This is theorizing with a vengeance. Nevertheless, the Counsel upheld the doctrine as unimpeachable, until a practical man, Mr. Mullins, was called in, who produced a tube, into each side of which, but at irregular distances, another tube of equal diameter was inserted-these two lateral branches constituting, with the extremity of the tube, three distinct openings for the egress of the water entering by the fourth opening, which formed the mouth of the tube. Mr. Mullins stated that he had repeatedly, in the course of the two preceding days, caused water to flow through this tube under considerable pressure: and that he found when the lateral openings were closed, and the flow of water confined to the centre or right-lined tube, the quantity of water which flowed out in a given time was fully equal to, or rather greater than that which was discharged when the lateral tubes were opened, and the water allowed to flow freely through all the three openings. Verily, there is a large difference between theory and practice!