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Royal Society, the honour of having first announced the theory of the composition of water would have been unanimously conceded to Watt.

It is the testimony, therefore, of Dr. Blagden alone that has disturbed the current of scientific history. It is his testimony, not appealed to by Cavendish, but gratuitously offered by himself, that contains the allegation that Cavendish mentioned to him and others his conclusions. It is his testimony, gratuitously sent to Crell, that deprives the French chemists, Lavoisier, Laplace, and Monge of their due share of honour, and it was by his acts that erroneous dates and claims were propagated throughout Europe. Let us impannel then a British jury-not of chemists, for their verdict is given-not of the improvers or manufacturers of steam-engines, for they might be partial,—but of the highest functionaries of the law-the members of the peerage-let us lay before them these facts, and then tell them that Blagden received an annuity of £500 a-year from Cavendish; that, at his death, he left him a legacy of £15,000, and we will answer for it that the testimony of Blagden will be rejected, and the priority of Watt affirmed.

Let it not be said that we are injuring by these observations the character of Cavendish. We rank ourselves among his most ardent admirers. Knowing nothing of what he did in this dispute, we say nothing of his conduct. So much, indeed, was done for him, and that so seasonably, that he did not need to do anything for himself. His bequest to Blagden was a meed of gratitude for past services-not a bribe for services to come. That he acted ungenerously to Watt, his best friends must admitfor he has admitted it himself. The omission in his "Experiments on Air" of all notice of Mr. Watt and his theory, was unworthy of a philosopher; and he stands self-condemned, because he corrected the omission before he printed his paper. We have no other fault to lay to his charge. He was unfortunate in belonging to a Society where such proceedings could have taken place. He was doubly unfortunate in having his deeds emblazoned by an over-officious and too friendly hand; and he was more unfortunate still in having for his injured rival a man whose meek and gentle nature never roused a hostile feeling,-whose modesty, and sincerity, and worth, were universally admired, and who during the agitation of the question we have been discussing, was struggling against the infirmities of an enfeebled constitution, -combating pirates who were robbing him of his inventions, and sounding the very depths of his mind to perfect that gigantic mechanism which has subjugated Time, and Space, and Matter, -lengthening one by abridging it-conquering another by retreating from it, and moulding material nature, with the skill of living hands, to that infinity of forms and conditions which supply the wants and administer to the luxury of our species.

Those who are familiar with the working of scientific institutions constituted on the voluntary principle, like those of England, will wonder that such a melo-drame as that which we have been describing, should have been performed on the stage of the Royal Society. An opinion has long prevailed in England, indicating either the vanity of the nation, or the imbecility of its rulers, that while in other countries literary and scientific institutions prosper under the wing of the State, they thrive in this country when sustained by voluntary contributions, and directed by individual zeal. Were these individuals men of learning and science, the institution which they adorn would doubtless be conducted, as in other countries, with that energy and rectitude which might be expected from men of European celebrity and ambitious of intellectual fame. But unable as such men often are to pursue their researches without injury to their families, and compelled, as they often have been, to renounce altogether, or to pursue by fits and starts the studies in which they excel, such an institution, though full of intellectual energy and moral power, would, without the bounty of the State, speedily languish and die. Were these individuals, on the contrary, only amateur philosophers-men of wealth, and influence, and rank, they might form a society, active in its infancy, and energetic in its youth-fostering the achievements of humble and insulated talent, and occasionally rousing to action an ignorant or a torpid government; but without the light of science, the emanation often of the poor,-without the brightness of genius, the gift frequently of the humble, without the lustre of immortal names, it would, like the falling meteor, flash, and dazzle, and disappear. The Royal Society of London is an unnatural union of these two forms of a scientific body,-a copartnery of men of station and men of genius,-a collection of atoms of such opposite and incongruous properties, that even the electric spark of royal favour cannot effect their combination. While science and literature therefore have been advancing with rapid strides in every European community under the sunshine of royal and imperial patronage, and the influence of homogeneous and well-ordered institutions, they have been advancing in England through the irrepressible energy of native genius, and in spite of the ignorance and illiberality of her statesmen, and the discouragement and obstructions of voluntary and heterogeneous associations.

In other countries where men of learning and science are invited by the State, and allured from professional toil by its bounty, where the unbefriended genius of the provinces is marshalled in the capital in one phalanx of intellectual powerunfettered with distracting labour and undisturbed with domestic cares, science advances under the noble rivalry of ardent, yet kindred spirits. The strongholds of nature will not surrender

at the first summons of the besieger. The approaches must be gradually made and secured, the mine must be daily sprung, and the nightly bivouac endured, before she opens her crypts, and discloses her secrets. It is but to the priest that never quits its shrine that the oracle yields its response; it is but by the light of the vestal fire that never dims, that the mortal eye in its socket of flesh can bring into view the infinitely little, and command the infinitely distant, and survey the infinitely great. Thus urged by continued pressure-thus questioned by perpetual interrogation, the material universe surrenders its laws to the courage and assiduity of the sage ;--a rich harvest of invention and discovery is gathered into the treasury of knowledge, and the bounty of the State is usuriously repaid in public benefits and national glory.

In our English institutions, on the contrary, it is only the sages of the Metropolis, and of the Universities in its vicinity, that can thus work in combination; and did they work continuously and in numbers, science might doubtless flourish under their patronage, and be advanced by their labours. But they hold their meetings only during six months of the year, and the door of the Royal Society is closed against the humble votary of science, whatever be his genius, who cannot pay their entry and composition money, the golden key which alone can open it: And even the active philosopher who, amid the Scottish and Irish mountains, may desire to be a member of the institution, and perchance to honour it with his name and his genius, must pay the same extravagant price, though he never treads its halls, nor receives any other benefits than a copy of its Transactions. The Society, therefore, includes but a small section of the scientific community, and the defect in number and funds is supplied by the indiscriminate admission of gentlemen of wealth, rank, and office, who form by far the most numerous, and certainly a very influential class of the Royal Society.

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The functions required from a body thus constituted, must be performed in committees of various shades of capacity and knowledge; and independently of the undue influence of official functionaries, there is always found in such a democratic council some little aspirant for power, who obtains a temporary supremacy, as much from the ignorance of his unlettered colleagues, as from the interested devotion of his scientific friends. clashing interests of universities, castes, and professions, are all more or less represented and fostered in these judicial conclaves: But the provincial philosopher has no representative there, and whether he be a competitor for medals or for fame, he will have little chance of success against an university or a metropolitan rival. And even if he is ambitious only of a niche for his discoveries in the Philosophical Transactions, or desires a testimony

to the priority of his labours, he will succeed in neither, if some influential leader in the society, or some upstart member of a committee has been pursuing the same train of research. Owing to the small number of able men who compose these committees, there is perhaps only one who is really well acquainted with the subject of the communication submitted to its judgment; and should the views of the unbefriended philosopher stand opposed either to his inquiries, or even to his theories, he will not scruple to report them as erroneous, and perchance lay claim to the discoveries themselves.

From these observations, our readers will understand how the claims of Mr. Watt must have fared in a body thus constituted, and thus managed. He was not a Fellow of the Society, and he was little known as a chemist to the resident members. Though his world-wide reputation was then not only hatched, but fledged, its pinions had not raised it to Fame, and it had scarcely reached in its commanding phase the coteries of the Royal Society. But, though his rights were trodden down under the influences which we have recorded, yet Truth, ever elastic and free, never fails to extricate itself from beneath the compressing foot of the usurper; and, though half a century has, in this case, been required to correct the errors, and to remove the prejudices of the dispensers of fame, another period of equal length would have been necessary, but for the preservation of written documents, and the energy of filial affection. A century and a half of controversy has not counteracted the evil influences of the Royal Society in depriving Leibnitz of his due honour as an inde pendent inventor of the Differential Calculus, though the time is fast approaching when even England will do homage to his name. Nor are these the only cases in which the history of science has been falsified, and the rights of genius withheld. In the past, and in the passing century, the upright historian will find abun dant proofs of the dishonesty of individual arbiters, and of the remissness and partiality and corruption of scientific institutions. Need we seek for any other illustration of our views, or any other proof of the fact, than in the very recent history of the dis covery of a new planet. This grand discovery-the greatest that has ever illustrated any age or nation-has been lost to England, by the ignorance, the listlessness, and perchance the jealousy of individuals, and through the indolence and inefficiency of her scientific institutions. Had there been an Academy of Sciences in England such as that in France, and an astronomer such as that at Berlin, Cambridge would have had to boast of her second Newton, and England would have pointed to the two remotest planets in our system as the trophies of her genius and the emblems of her glory.

· ART. VII.-Ireland-The Devon Commission---Lord George Hill's Facts from Gweedore.

THE difficulties which a consideration of the social condition of Ireland at any time presents, are increased to such a degree by the calamity which has annihilated the produce of two million acres of land, and four-fifths of the food of the peasantry, and which has placed five hundred thousand destitute men as labourers on public works, undertaken for the purpose of enabling them to obtain temporary relief, that we have been often tempted in despair to abandon the task which we had proposed to ourselves of saying a few words to our readers on the Report presented in the last session of Parliament, by the "Commissioners appointed to inquire into the state of the law and practice in respect to the occupation of land in Ireland." Parliament will have again met before what we write can be published-but events will have already anticipated legislation. A panic has seized the creditors whose money was invested in mortgages of land. Suits of foreclosure, in twelve hundred cases, were instituted last term in the Irish courts. This is but the beginning of troubles. The landlords are in their turn unwontedly busy in the various local courts through the country in litigation with the occupiers of the land. In ordinary times, the payment of rent is sought by a proceeding, formerly instituted for the recovery of the possession of the land, the rent of which is not forthcoming--the payment of the rent and that alone is thought of-a change of possession not being contemplated by either of the parties to the suit. The object is now not the payment of the rents-a thing altogether hopeless in the case of the holders of small patches of potato ground, but the restoration of the land itself to the proprietor, and the course taken is by a proceeding, which demands the payment of rent as a debt-enables the landlord to imprison his tenant, and exact as the price of his liberation the surrender of the land. There can be no doubt that many of the wealthier farmers have taken advantage of the distress, to withhold the payment of rent. The pressure of the mortgagee on the one hand, and the diminution of the fund from which he is to be paid, on the other, will inevitably produce the early sale of many of the more encumbered properties. If any thing can save them, it is legislation in the spirit of a late Treasury minute, which proposes the sale of entailed properties for arrears

* The number employed last week was between 470,000 and 480,000; this week it will amount to above 500,000. The amount paid by the Board of Works, between Monday and Saturday last, was £170,000. The number of each labourer's family cannot be regarded as less than four, and this will be 2,000,000,-January 18, 1847

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