The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-12 00:00:00

LINCOLN.

Treasury Chambers, Jan. I, 1845.
My Lord,—The Lords Commissioners of her Majesty's
Treasury having considered the importance of effec-
tually prosecuting and completing a geological survey
of Great Britain and Ireland, I have it in command to
transmit herewith, for your information, a copy of their
Lordships' minute of the 27th ultimo, containing their
views upon this subject ; and I am to request, that if
your Lordship has no objection to undertake the duties
therein specified, you will submit to this board your opi-
nion as to the persons by whom it n•ould be advisable
that the survey should be conducted ; as to the expense
that it may be necessary annually to incur in the prose-
cution of it; and as to the sum required for the estab-
lishment and maintenance of the museum in London and
in Dublin, to which my Lords have adverted in their said
minute. I have, &c.,
(Signed)

C. E. TItEVELYAN.

LETTER FROM THE EARL OF LINCOLN TO THE LORDS
COMMISSIONERS OF HER MAJESTY'S TREASURY.
Office of Woods, &c., January 13, 1845.
My Lords,—l have had the honour of receiving, by a
communication from Mr. Trevelyan, bearing date the
Ist inst., your Lordships' minute of the 27th ult., con-
veying to me an intimation of your Lordships' views in
respect to the future prosecution of the geological sur-
vey of Great Britain and Ireland, in connexion with the
transfer of certain duties of direction and control which
your Lordships are of opinion should in future be com•
mitted to the chief Commissioner of this Board, and
with the application and extension of the results of
that survey to purposes for which, in London, under
your Lordships' sanction, an institution is already
established and put in charge with this department.
I beg leave to assure your Lordships in reply, not
only of my willingness, but of my earnest desire to
carry out the intentions of her Majesty's Government
in this matter, to the best of my ability; and having
stated this, I will proceed at once, in obedience to your
Lordships' wishes, and as far as my necessarily limited
knowledge of d :tails will permit, to point out the mode
by which I think those intentions may be best effected.
The geological survey of Great Britain, as your
Lordships are aware, originated in the year 1832, in an
offer of Sir 11. De la Beche to supply the data for
colouring geologically certain sheets of the ordnance
map of England, comprising parts of Cornwall, Somer-
set, and Dorset, and the whole of the county of Devon.
A sum of 3001. in aid of this service (Sir H. De la
Beche contributing the remaining and the greater por-
tion of the expense) was charged against the survey of
Great Britain in that year; and subsequently, the sur-
vey has been extended, under his direction, over other
portions of the country.
The geological survey of the counties of Cornwall,
Devon, Somerset, Gloucester, Monmouth, Glamorgan,
Carmarthen, Pembroke, with portions of Wilts, Dorset,
Worcester, Brecon, and Cardigan, are finished, and are
either finished or are ready for publication. The re-
mainder of South Wales, with the northern portion of
the principality, and some of the adjoining English
counties, may be stated as at present under examination,
parts of these only being completed.
From a return with which I have been favoured by
the Master General and Board of Ordnance, it appears
that six persons, civilians, are employed under Sir H.
De la Beche, as his assistants upon the survey; that up
to the 31st of March, 1844 (including, from 1935 to
1839, the service of an Ordnance surveyor, chiefly
directed to the correction of the pre-existing maps for
geological purposes), the cost has, in the whole,
amounted to rather more than 11,000/. ; and that the
sum set apart for it in the Ordnance estimates for the
current Parliamentary year is 1,9501., which is appro-
priated as follows, viz.:—
To the Director £soo
In lieu of travelling expenses

£6OO

To assistant geologists :
One, at 3001 3OO
Two, at 2001.

Three, at 150/.

To contingencies

1,150
200

£1,950

For the application of these monies, however, there
appears to have been no specific parliamentary authority;
nor, except in casual statements and discussions upon
the estimates of which they form a portion, do I find
any notice of this service in Parliament, and certainly
none at all commensurate with its claims upon the public
attention.
The time, however, it appears to me, is now arrived at
which the geological survey should take its proper posi-
tion in the estimates annually submitted to Parliament
by your Lordships' board, accompanied by a report of its
progress within the previous year, and of the portion re-
maining to be accomplished. Your Lordships will, I
feel assured, concur with me in opinion, that indepen-
dently of the expediency of such a practice on Parliamen-
tary grounds, publicity supplies an encouragement to zeal
where zeal exists, and a stimulus where it is wanting ;
and that the practical importance of the principle is in
no instance more manifest than where, in connexion with
the acceptance of great indiviival responsibilities, the
question is one of giving or withholding public money.
I feel the less hesitation in submitting these observa-
tions to your Lordships on the present occasion, inas-
much as, with the facilities afforded by my position for
becoming informed of the real progress of the geological
survey, I can testify that no want of either zeal or dili-
gence can be imputed to the parties concerned in its pro-
secution.

Its advances, however, from the inadequacy of its re-
sources, have hitherto been slow and unsatisfactory :
and I should recommend that a vote of at least 4,0001.
should be taken in the ensuing and in every future year
until the undertaking is completed.
Having consulted Sir H. De la Beche as to the period
within which the survey of great Britain could be brought
to a close, with the additional assistance I bave sugges-
ted, he assures me that with an annual vote of 4,0001.
its present rate of progress would be considerably more
than doubled ; and that the whole would be brought to
a conclusion within 12, or at the furthest 14 years from
the present time.
It appears to me highly desirable that the entire sur-
vey should, if possible, he the work of one and the same
supervision ; but with the sum hitherto set apart for its
prosecution it is inconsistent with the ordinary
probe
bilities of human life that Sir H. De la Beche, in-
deed any geologist of equal maturity and experience
with himself in the higher requisites for such a service,
should live to witness the termination of his labours.
The amount, therefore, which I have recommended is
as small as I think consistent with the completion of the
survey conjointly with the attainment of an object to
which I cannot help attaching very great importance ;
but if your Lordships views should differ from my own
on this point, I would then only urge that the sum to be
now submitted to Parliament should in future sessions
be adhered to, inasmuch as any diminution would neces-
sitate the dismissal of men who had been trained to the
service, and whose places it would involve a loss both of
money and time to supply.
It affords me great pleasuro to find that your Lord-
ships are disposed to give increased efficiency to the
Museum of Economic Geology in London—an Institu-
tion to the condition of which, but for difficulties which
I trust are now removed, I should have long since fel tit
my duty to draw your Lordships' attention.
The museum in Craig's-court was founded in the year
1835, in connexion with the geological survey of Great
Britain.
Your Lordships will find a statement of the earlier
oirounistances of its progress, in a letter addressed to the