The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-07 00:00:00

su apology, however, is due from that Noble
Lord to the Fellows of the Society.

But, in respect to the application of the grant
in question, it is proper to say that an inspection
of the communication to the Treasury will, when
it is produced, show others than the gods of that
department—others who may be more competent
to form opinions on matters of science than Noble
Lords and Members of Parliament—that the grant,
instead of being withdrawn, ought, for the sake
of the attainment of vast public economies, to be
a*gmented. One subject to which the vote
was applied was the expense of some experi-
ments by Messrs. FAIRBAIRN and HODGEINSON
to determine the strength of materials. To the
previous experiments of the same kind, mainly
those of Messrs. FAIRBAIRN and HODGKINSON, it
is now well known the achievement of wrought-
iron bridges like the Britannia bridge is due.
The forms of bridges originally proposed by
ROBERT STEPHENSON are simple cylinders (and
afterwards ovals), which, it was proved, would have
occasioned as fearful mashes as that which was oc-
casioned by his own original Dee Bridge. To the
success of the principle of construction as applied
to the Britannia and other bridges, the applica-
eons of it to marine constructions and to archi-
tecture are due ; and the further experiments on
the strength of materials would no doubt be
available to architecture, to hollow brick con-
structions, and to large savings of materials
and money, even in barracks and other public
works. Another subject to which the vote was
applied was a set of experiments with a view to
determine with greater accuracy than has yet
been sought or attained what amount of power
is procurable from given quantities of heat or
vapour, and to attempt conversions of caloric
into power, which experiments promise vast aug-
mentations of mechanical power like that due
to WATT, which, it was declared, had so large
* share in bearing us through the last War.
Another topic of investigation undertaken by the
society is marine meteorology, which has opened
up great promise of increased safety as well as
speed of transit already. On these topics alone,
which affect even the public expenditure by hun-
dreds of thousands, and mbrcan tile arid commer-
cial and manufacturing interests by millions in
increased efficiency and economy, the withdrawal
of the grant is disastrous; whilst, in an administra-
tive point of view, it is of the largest significance
as to the state of information which guides what
CARLYLE call's the " spigot of taxation." For the
prosecution of these topics of investigation alone
a wise economy would positively urge the appli-
cation of tens of thousands of pounds by the most
competent investigators that might be obtained,
not gratuitously, but by liberal payment. In
respect to marine meteorology, for want of know-
ledge of the practical elementary science already
obtained, or care for the sure warnings yielded
by the instrument which science has already placed
in the hands of the officers of the Navy—the
barometer—our fleet failed to stand out to sea,
and sustained disastrous shipwrecks before Sebas-
topol. From want of knowledge of the new sani-
tary science, or almost of the common phenomena
of respiration, soldiers as well as others have been
tragically smothered on board ships, and on land
slaughters three and fourfold greater than from
the sword have befallen our armies. From the
want of practical science military men were ud-
aware of the fact, or did not heed it, that the
common air consists of material particles, and
they continued to use projectiles of the worst
shapes to divide them ; whilst one military officer
in the French service, Colonel MINIE, by ob-
serving the fact, and by shaping a musket ball to
cleave those particles more easily, so accelerated
and extended the range of the flight of musket or
rifle balls as to lay the foundation of immense
changes in the art of war.
On the Committee of tho Royal Society for the
direction of the vote there would be Professor
WHEATSTONE, the practical applications of whose
investigations and inventions in electrical science
have althost annihilated time, and are now at
work in the field of battle, and from thence,
three thousand miles to this country, not only
bring hourly information, but quicken the opera-
tions of war. By one practical application of
electrical science be has furnished the means of
measuring the flight of projectiles, of which the
Prussian authorities, and even the Russians,
have long availed themselves, and ours are. only now
beginning the use. On the Committee at Woolwich
for examining the proposed application of new
inventions to war, as scientific terms are involved,
and possibly some scientific matters, it would be
deemed impracticable to do without some science,
and the Government took credit for the appoint-
ment of Professor WHEATSTONE upon it. But
whilst men of no science, and no known skill in
art, unless it bo Parliamentary art and jobbing
influence, receive high pay for their time, Lord
PANIIIIRE has actually required two years of
_re-
sponsible service from the Professor absolutely
without any pay whatever.
The services of Professor MILLER were recently
requested for a public department, where the ap-
plication of those services would in all probability
be a means of obtaining important economies, but
as he was expected (as a man of science) to give
his services gratuitously, and he being unable to
do so—for he had to live—the public have been
deprived of them.
The following are the terms in which the Trea-
sury refused to continue the grant :
" The Lords Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury
having had before them your lordship's application on
behalf of the Royal Society for the annual grant of 1,0001.
-ilaeed at the disposal of the Royal Society for scientific
purposes, I am directed to state that, although special
grants, amounting in the whole to the sum of 4,000/.,
have been made from time to time, in the first instance
for special and temporary objects, to the Royal Society
(a gross misstatement, as Lord John Russell's letter, if
produced, will show) out of a fund very limited in its
amount, which is more properly applicable, and is other-
wise applied, to charitable purposes [a cool avowal this,
of a perversion of funds destined to charitable purposes,
a perversion without the knowledge of Parliament, the
possibility of which should be inquired into], my lords
are not aware of any understanding for making an an-
nual grant to the Royal Society for scientific purposes
out of the public funds, and at the present moment the
more urgent and legitimate demands upon the fund from
which the above-mentioned donation has been made to the
Royal Society do not permit their lordships to make any
grant out of it for scientific purposes. [An insinuation
that the council of the Royal Society were thrusting
their hands into a charity box.] If, however, the Royal
Society, looking 60 the immediate importance of the ob-
jects for which a grant of public money is applied for, and
to the insufficiency of their own funds to enable them to
accomplish them, are of opinion that their claims upon
the publiefunds are such, as Parliament would undoubtedly
considerationer 'eiecotygnmiae my
lords will be
repiresentaptrieopednarwhict
ho takethe
t he Royal
their
aisor.
make to them with that object."
And so it is expected that a number of men of
science, who are to get nothing whatsoever for
their pains, are to undertake to make out that to
be of immediate importance, which, as it may not
be practically applied on the morrow, any trea-
sury clerk may pronounce not to be immediate,
however momentous the eventual, and not very
distant, results may be ; that they are to make
out the importance of those objects, the under-
standing of which will, in most instances, imply
the knowledge of systems, to the satisfaction of
the " lesser gods" of the Treasury, including Sir.
GEORGE LEWIS, of whose gross ignorance and in-
competency to appreciate such objects they have
already had experience ; that they are not only
to do this, but to subject themselves to the sneers
of the SIBTHORPS and the SEYMOURS, and to under-