every year subjects proposed for prize essays of 2,000 and 3,000 francs, open to the competition of every one who feels himself adequate to the proposed inquiry. Now what have we in England of a similar kind to excite the efforts of our own mathematicians? Nothing whatever, if we except the Copleian medal of the Royal Society; and even this is sometimes not voted for many successive years. Besides, as this is not the reward of any particular effort, it does not excite that emulation a prize subject is calculated to produce. I say nothing of the intrinsic value of this solitary prize, I am aware that honourable distinction has more charms for men of science than pecuniary reward; but still if a little of the latter were blended with the former, it would not be the less acceptable on that account. The value of the French prize is about 1257, which, considering the circumstances of the two countries, is nearly equivalent to 200 guineas in this; and I am persuaded few of our philosophers would despise an honorary distinction because it brought with it a prize of 200 guineas. That sum, however, or half of it, converted into two gold medals, and dignified with the title of the Royal Annual Prize, would not fail of producing as great an improvement in the mathematical sciences of England, as the patronage of his present Majesty effected in the fine arts; and many as are the blessings and advantages we owe to his paternal reign, the historian will not neglect to record the progress in the arts as one of its distinguishing features.

With regard to the pensioned philosophers of France, I will not insist on that point; but shall merely observe, that such of our situations as most resemble them (such, for instance, as the honourable post of Astronomer Royal) should only be bestowed upon men who have distinguished themselves by their talents and devotedness to the sciences, and who possess the requisite qualifications for discharging their duty in them, with credit to themselves, and to the honour of their country.

Not only, however, is there no stimulus of the kind above referred to held out to our mathematicians, but those honours and distinctions which it is in the power of our Royal Society to bestow are dealt out, to that class of men at least we are speaking of, with a very chary hand, It would be scarcely credible in a foreign country that not a single member of the mathematical class of either of our two great military institutions have had the honour of a Fellowship bestowed upon them by the Royal Society. There are, we believe, seven or eight mathematical professors in the Royal Military College at Sandhurst; about the same number at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich; and about two or three at the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth; and not an individual of any of them has ever received that distinction. This surely cannot be attributed to disqualification in point of talent; for amongst these gentlemen will undoubtedly be found some of the first mathematicians in England; and on one of them, in particular, the Society has conferred the highest honour it has in its power to

bestow-the Copleian medal; but I have not yet heard of his being complimented with a Fellowship.* To what, then, are we to attribute these exclusions? If they arise from the paltry pride of circumstances; if genuine scientific acquirements, and irreproachable moral conduct, are not considered as equivalent to gaudy equipages and large establishments; if the latter are preferred to the former in the selection of its members; the Royal Society may boast of being the richest scientific association in Europe, but it will never be esteemed the most learned.

I have now gone over what I consider to be the principal preventing causes to our progress in mathematics, viz.: first, the impossibility of publishing without an almost certain loss any mathematical work beyond the mere class of elementary treatises; secondly, that no stimulus is held out to produce emulation; and, thirdly, that these sciences are not patronized and protected by our principal scientific institution; an English mathematician having, therefore, neither to look forward to pecuniary remuneration, nor to honorary distinction, it is not surprising that so few of them pursue the subject further than is necessary for taking their degree with reputation at the University, or to qualify them for such situations as they may have obtained elsewhere.

The mathematical examination at Cambridge is certainly very respectable, but the importance of it is rather apparent than real; there appears to be a defect in the system, not arising from any want of talent and knowledge in the professors, not in any want of value and excellencies in their lectures, nor in any deficiency in activity or ability in the private tutors, but in the nature of the stimulus, which is rather calculated to make a superficial than a profound mathematician.

A Cambridge student of good acquirements, and a "reading man" (as he will be termed there), manifests a constant anxiety by day and by night, awake and (I had almost said) asleep, not to become an acute mathematician or a profound philosopher, not to acquire scientific knowledge to apply to the useful, the ornamental, or the professional duties of after life, but that he may be a first or second wrangler, and obtain the Smith's prize. To these points, and to these exclusively, his exertions for the last 12 months of his under graduate probation will be directed. He reads books of all kinds, not to store his mind with principles and truths, but to hunt up short solutions, rapid investigations, and comprehensive formula; his memory thus becomes an immense portfolio of problems and solutions, which is poured upon the senate-house tables during the week of examination. He attains his object, delights in the eclat of his honours, becomes a senior or second wrangler, perhaps a Smith's prize man," and then bids farewell," a long farewell," to alma mater and mathematics. This is at least the case with by far the greater number of Cambridge students; we have certainly

Mr. Ivory is a Fellow of the Royal Society.-T.

some brilliant exceptions to this rule; but of the whole number of wranglers who have left that University within the period to which our remarks are principally intended to apply, how few of them have we ever heard of afterwards in the pursuit of mathematical researches !

This will not be understood as contradictory to my former statement, viz." that no subject is better calculated to insure disinterested admirers." The man who thus acquires his knowledge is not a mathematician; he is only a gatherer, "a dealer in other men's stuff," and sees none of the beauties which incessantly present themselves to the mind of a mathematical investigator. After all, however, it must be admitted that the knowledge, though superficial, is very extensive that is necessary for passing the senatehouse examination with that eclat which we have supposed; and many thus stored with the requisite materials would doubtless pursue the subject for the proper love of it, were not the science, from some of the causes to which I have alluded, fallen into disrepute, and an idea gone abroad that we have no mathematicians of eminence, and that no distinction is to be reaped from the pursuit.

Something like this not long ago attached to our military character; our officers were labouring under the same disadvantageous comparison with respect to those of France as our mathematicians still do with regard to the same class of men in that country; and I have the patriotism (vanity if the reader pleases) to believe that, had our men of science but the same opportunity of displaying their powers as our soldiers have had, they would in no long time prove to the world that England can be pre-eminent as well in science as in

war.

There might require in the first instance the same indulgence in this case as in that: the first efforts might not be expected to be crowned with complete success. It was well remarked by one of our ministers in answer to certain observations against the first elevation of the Duke of Wellington after the battle of Talavera "that it was necessary to woo Victory, who had long forsaken us, to our arms; and that, notwithstanding that battle might not be of the decided nature of many, yet there was displayed in it that talent and courage which would produce greater effect at some future opportunity;" that opportunity soon presented itself, and the effect was such as every Englishman feels proud of, and which he ought, in confidence of British talent and British nerve, to have anticipated. The same kind of tenderness may be necessary in developing the dormant scientific resources of the country. If talent be displayed, though it may not be directed in the first instance to the most profound researches, it should be cherished and encouraged; and we should soon find that science would recompense these indulgences bestowed upon her votaries as liberally as Victory has done those conferred upon her's.

I have now only one other observation to make, which is with reference to our reviewers. It is the undoubted duty of the editors of these publications to protect every branch of literature and

science with an equal hand; it is a duty which they owe to the public, and which they ought to discharge with the strictest justice and impartiality; but this is very far from being the case. When any article of this kind does appear, it is generally so contracted that one cannot help reading in the pages the directions that the writers have received from the editor, "not to make the article too long." Even in a work professedly philosophical the editor a short time back having allowed himself to propose a mathematical query from one of his correspondents, thought it necessary to accompany it with a short note, requesting those who might be disposed to answer it, "to be as concise as possible in their reply." All this does not happen because the editors of reviews would not prefer scientific discussions to the miserable "limping poetry" which frequently fill their pages; but because (if we may be allowed the expression) the mathematics are out of fashion; and for the sake of extending the sale of their respective works they administer to the bad taste of their readers, instead of using their influence to correct it.

The Annals of Philosophy does not fall under this censure. It is, Sir, apparently your wish to correct this defect, and to stimulate our mathematicians to action; and it is on this account that I have ventured to address to you this letter, not without hopes that you may be induced to give it insertion in your Journal, and that it may fall under the observation of some one more competent than myself to remove that stigma which at present attaches to the scientific character of Great Britain. B.

ARTICLE II.

Reply to Dr. Henry's Letter respecting the Introduction of Bleaching by Oxymuriatic Acid. By Mr. Samuel Parkes, F. L. S. &c.

SIR,

(To Dr. Thomson.)

BEING at a great distance from home when Dr. Henry's letter respecting a part of my Chemical Essays was published in your Annals of Philosophy, it was not in my power to avail myself of your last number to make my reply. In that letter Dr. Henry doubts the correctness of that part of the essay on bleaching (see essay xii. vol. iv.) in which I have stated that the first application of the oxymuriatic acid for the purpose in question was by Messrs. Milnes, of Aberdeen, and contends that this merit belongs to other persons, and especially to his father, Mr. Thomas Henry, of Manchester.

Being aware of the many obligations which the public owe to Dr. Henry, I confess myself greatly prejudiced in favour of every thing which has proceeded from his pen, and consequently feel not

a little hurt on reading the contents of his letter to you. In this he says, that my account of the introduction of the mode of bleaching by oxymuriatic acid into this country resembles so closely, in several respects, a statement published some years ago in Dr. Rees's Cyclopædia, that it is probable the historical information of both was derived from the same source."

Had Dr. Henry read that part of the essay with more attention, he would have perceived that it was impossible that my information could have sprung from that source from whence Dr. Rees had obtained his materials for the Cyclopædia; because my narrative is written in direct opposition to that account, and in fact positively contradicts it. The following passage, at p. 45 of the essay, is conclusive on this point: "The Gentlemen of whom I now speak, and to whom Professor Copland communicated the information he had obtained, were the Messrs. Milnes, of the house of Gordon, Barron, and Co., of Aberdeen; and I have the utmost reason to believe, in opposition to an account lately given in a very respectable publication (meaning Dr. Rees's Cyclopædia), that theirs was the first actual application of the oxymuriatic acid in Great Britain, to the purpose of bleaching either linen or cotton goods for sale.”

Dr. Henry having, in his letter to Dr. Rees, related that "a meeting of the manufacturers and merchants of Manchester, then called by public advertisement to consider of a petition presented to Parliament by MM. Bourbollon de Bonnueil and Co." was held, and that in consequence thereof "the Members for the county were instructed to oppose the petition when presented to Parlia ment, and its prayer was accordingly refused," adds in a note, "This was the true reason of the rejection of the petition, and not, as Mr. Parkes states, the opposition of a Gentleman who happened to be in the gallery of the House of Commons when the petition was brought forward." The account which I give, p. 62, is shortly this: "Fortunately one of the Gentlemen who first applied the oxymuriatic acid to the purposes of bleaching in this country, as mentioned at p. 44, happening to be in the gallery of the House of Commons at the time the application was made in behalf of these foreigners, he took immediate measures to inform the principal Members that this was not a new process, that he himself had long ago prepared an article equally efficacious, and that he would be ready to substantiate the truth of his statement when required. Their purpose was thus defeated, and the Act was not obtained."

Here is the whole which I have said upon this point; and as far as it concerns the present subject, I am sure it is quite correct; for

* When engaged in writing the essay on bleaching, I was entirely ignorant of the circumstance that Dr. Rees in a subsequent volume had corrected his former account of the history of oxymuriatic bleaching-had given the full merit to Mr. Henry, which the Doctor himself had claimed in behalf of his father-and, in the handsomest way possible, had done ample justice to all parties. See the article "Oxymuriatic Acid,” in vol. xxv, part ii.