The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-22 00:00:00

MEMORANDUM 11.

As soon as the estimate for meteorological expenses had
passed, steps were taken to organise a new branch depart-
ment at the Board of Trade.

On the Ist of August, Captain Fitzroy was appointed to
execute the duties of this new office, referring to Dr. Lyon
Playfair, of the department of science and art, and to Ad-
miral 13cechey, of the marine department for such assis-
tance as they could render.
As soon as registers and instruments are ready, and an
office prepared, Captain Fitzroy will be assisted by four or
five persons, whose duties will be superintended.
It is expected that several ships will be supplied with
"abstract logs" (meteorological registers) and instruments
in October, and that the office will be in full work next
N‘ ,vember.

The Admiralty have ordered all the records in the Hy-
drogro.phical Office to be placed at the disposal of the
Board of Trade for a sufficient time. All other documents
to which Government has access will be similarly available,
and the archives of the India House may likewise be
searched. There will be no want of materials, though not
such as would have been obtained by using better instru-
ments on a systematic plan.
Captain Fitzroy ventures to think that the documents
hitherto presented by Lieut. Maury present too much de-
tail to the seamen's eye; that they have not been ade•
quately condensed ; and therefore are not, practically, so
useful as is generaly supposed. His instructions, or sailing
directions (the real condensed results of his elaborate and
indefatigable researches), have effected the actual benefits
attained by mariners.
Reflecting on this evil, which increasing information
would not tend to diminish, Captain Fitzroy proposes to
collect all data, reduced and meaned (or averaged) in a
number of conveniently arranged tabular books, from
which, at a subsequent period, diagrams, chikrts, and
"meteorological dictionaries," or records, will be compiled,
so that, by turning to the latitude and longitude, all in-
formation about that locality may be obtained at once, and
distinctly.

I cannot doubt the spirited merchants and shipowners of
England will not be slow to follow the example of the it
brethren in the United States, and will lend their heartiost
assistance to a work so useful. Great facilities will be
afforded them in the way of instruments of tested accu-
racy ; and the increasing number of scientific seamen,
which is resulting from the local institutions of education,
and the system of examination of masters and mates for
certificates, will furnish them with observers in every part
of the ocean fit to be intrusted with such instruments and
skilful in their use. Let not the practical man think lightly
of such matters when he is reminded of the great services
of the barometer in forewarning of the coming storm, that
the ascertained temperature of the sea which his ship is
traversing will inform her master whether he is engaged
in one current or another, and announce to him the ap-
proach of the dangerous iceberg which is not discoverable
by any other means.

I will now, with your permission, prooeed to the consi-
deration of some other departments of our work, such as
geography, ethnography, and statistics, which are more
connected with my own pursuits, which, affected as they
aro by the character of man, the uncertainties of his will,
the accidents of his physical and moral nature, and thus
being less the subject of direct and pure experiment—seems
at first sight to be hardly reducible to those fixed laws
which it is the object of science to investigate and ascer-
tain. For these reasons, indeed, among others, these
branches of study formed at first no part of the scheme of
the British Association, and there was some doubt about
their subsequent admission.
Nevertheless, I rejoice that they were so admitted. The
apprehension that they must introduce the spirit of party
into our proceedings has been most honourably disap-
pointed ; and, as one who, in the capacity of a member of
the Legislature, have to act from time to time on the sub-
ject of some of their inquiries, I cannot but express my
gratitude for the assistance which they have afforded, both
by informing and forming the public mind on many im-
portant questions ; and, above all for the lesson they have
taught on the importance of testing by a patient collection
and impartial discussion of the facts ; in a word, for
having imparted the spirit of science into what, in the
largest sense of the word, may be called politics, instead
of importing the spirit of politics in its narrower sense
into science.

What is more important than to rescue questions of this
nature, such as finance and political economy, for in-
stance, in some degree at least, from the domain of party
contention ? And how can we better contribute to that
desirable result than by discussing the carefully collected
facts in a scientific spirit on an arena, within which no
party passion is excited, no party allegiance is acknow-
ledged, no party victory has to be lost or won, and when
men are at liberty to convince and be convinced without
risking a charge of treachery or a change of ministry as the
consequence? But, in fact, these studies could not fairly
have been excluded from our peripatetic university of
science.

Who shall separate politcal altogether from the influ-
ences of physical geography, or ethnology from physiology,
or the destinies of man upon this globe from the study of
his physical nature ? By its employment of the doctrine of
probabilities one branch of statistics is brought into imme-
diate contact with the higher mathematics, and the actuary
is thus enabled to extract certainty in the gross out of un-
certainty in the detail, and to provide man with the means
of securing himself against some of the worst contingencies
to which his life and property are exposed. In fact, sta-
tistics themselves are the introduction of the principle of
induction into the investigation of the affairs of human
life, an operation which requires the exercise of at least the
same philosophical qualities as other sciences. It is not
enough in any case merely to collect facts and reduce them
into a tabular form. They must be analysed as well fU,
comp wed ; the accompanying circumstances must 11
studied (which is more difficult in moral than in materi%
investigations), that we may be sure that we are—that is
to say, in reality calling the same things by the.
cimum.
names—treating of the same facts under the same circum-
stances; stances ; and all disturbing influences mustPs
be
be got at
eliminated before any such pure experiment C, a_ satisfac-
as can fairly be considered to have established
nee, And steam-
In an age of gas and steam of steamingti,;-gr; ping, the im-
portance conclusion. In some cases this is easier than in others.
boats, of railroads and. telegraphs, and pia!
arc too severe to
commonplace. The demands of scionocome
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