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LECTURES AXD INSTITUTION. of
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' A MODERN IWENCUI -DllAMA..*
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rgO The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ Feb . 18 , 1 S 60
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this '' and other such refusals he was superseded in his office , and . is to this date £ 900 out of pocket because he did his best to improve the Queen ' s private revenue ; and although a parliamentary inquiry established the fact that the revenue of the duchy was considerably increased duringhis term of office ; yet he was punished as if he had robbed the Queen . But the strangest feature of all was the rule laid'down-by the Solicitor-General of the duchy , to the effect that the auditor ought to certify to the correctness of an account by order of the ¦ . Chancellor , even if '" the auditor knew that such certification covered a fraud . To a stranger the question naturally arises—if such be the power of the Chancellor , and if lie uses it , what need is sham auditor ?
there to rob the Queen of £ 200 per an mini for a And how does -the lawyer reconcile his dictum with the old doctrine that thelaw will not recognise a fraud ? Perhaps the fact that the Chancellor of the duchy during a portion of the time was the chief leaseholder , may reconcile all these things I However , toiis . it seems that the affairs of charities ought always to be audited by " public accountants" of eminence ¦; the auditors of joint stock companies ought to be held responsible for the safety of the investments as valued by themselves up to the date of audit , whilst the auditors of public departments ought to be rendered independent by being made irremovable except by a court of law . ¦ .
Everybody is familiar with tales about corruption in Government departments , and latterly we have had a sort of extra-national audit in -theshape of a royal commission at Weedon , Woolwich , and tlie Tower , which after a very long- inquiry ended by acquitting everybody . Ofthe value of the report from such men the treatment of Mr . BeetOlacci furnishes one instance and we will conclude this article with another . During- the Crimean war , and whilst the ladies from John o'Groats to tlie Land \ s-end were all busy scraping lint to mate up for the neglect of the Commissariat , a Manchester merchant made an offer to supply a large quantity to the Government . After the usual three weeksof delay his letter was acknowledged , and he was asked tbr a sample , which not having ready he went to another firm which was already supplying , and begging a sample seiit it tip as his own , and quoted a price 3 d . per lb . less than was chava-ed by the firm frorti whom the sample was obtained . f wounded soldiers
Another delay of three weeks , whilst thousands o were dying for Want of Kt » t , and then a reply to the effect that a medical board had reported the lint as unsuitable . But mark the sequel ¦•" : in a day or two afterwards the merchant received a letter from Apothecaries Hall asking if he had not some-lint to dispose of ; he replied in the affirmative , and quoted 6 d . per lb . more than he liad offered the article at to the Ooverninent . In reply he wits told that they ( the authorities at Apothecaries Hall ) had understood that his price Was 6 d . per lb . less ; nevertheless he njight go to work , and send all he could until told to stop . " Doubtless the reader will feel disposed to ask one or two questions , such as , " Who composed the medical board which reported the lint as unsuitable ? How did the people at Apothecaries Halllcnow . that this merchant had lint for sale ? . How much of this same lint went to the Government at last , and at what price ? " And for ourselves , we ask , when shall we have a real national audit P
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iTMihl " failure at the Le system a common source - X plaii ) t among those who hoped that literary and scientific institutions would prove valuable instruments in national education . It was hot unreasonably expected that a steady band of members would attend the lecture-rooms of these establishments from year to year , Tead ' y and anxious to obtain the best and latest expositions of that wide round of subjects , scientific , literary , and artistic , which forni , so to speak , the basis of civilized life . In the main , however , this anticipation has been disappointed , and the number of institutions which try to arrange a good and 'useful programme is exceedingly small . As a rule , no lectures are popular but those of inero amusement , which arp , in fact , cheap substitutes fur the light comedy of the theatre , or the musical delectations of the concert-room or the opera . If svo take up at random a dozen lists
of lectures for the season , wo shall notice tin absurd jumble of subjects , thrown together in most admired disorder , " and scarcely over find sufficient space given to -any one topic to enable it to be treated i » a satisfactory way . Working mow . will congregate in consulev . ub . le numbers to hoar long- courses of instruction on a variety of subjects at the School of Arts nitd Minus in Jermyn Street but no mechanics' institution dare venture upon similar plans , ami the Royal Institution stands alone in'London for- fidelity to its original design , and tl > r supplying from swison to soason a . succession of di ' scouraea vvhich offer the readiest ' means of bein ^ r " well up " ' in the eoience of the day . What otliev body would put forward as * ' arrangements before J'Suster , " » ix lecturos , on the Vuriou . sFurfioa . of
Matter ( adapted to a juvenile auditory ) by Michael Fa ' kaim y twelve tocUirea on Fossil Birds un < l lieptiles by Hiohaiio Owen ; twelve on JLiyhfc , including its higher Phenomena , by Jount Tyndajli ,, and leu on the Jlohvtioas of the Annual Kingdom to the Industry of man by 12 mvitf LANXJSS'i ' Bit P Wo know that tho lloyu-1 Institution oitjoya iho patronage of the better educated portion of the aristocracy , and of thp upper section of Uio middle- ylaaa ; but is it true that thtfae are the only uovfcions of tho community who really want to bb informed , on tho aubjecU ulludod loP Wo cannot boliovo this to be the ease , aiui fear that by bud munug-oniont iudiuncea luwo b , uun spoilt , mid led to look anywhere rather thun to the lecturoa'ooin for aids to atudy or thought , It' an audience ia not well kept up , lecturers soon g-o down to ita ovols und . \ va recently hnd « curious instance of tihis in the hand-
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WHAT conatitutea ft play or a , novel unmoral V Uuv neighbours on the other airto of tho Olmimol hold , u very diflbront opinion / vi- > 4-liSa atiliiiuif . Ci . /\ ui f . liiili . wtiwtli in f' / iininrtii jimnruruf ,. niii'MrtlvtlH : HO
Lectures Axd Institxjtio^Ns
some and commodious building which adorns Finsbury f ! ircus , and whose proprietary roll in wealth . The occasion A > -as a soiree , ui which one of the most conspicuous objects . was a venerable cabbage-stalk of extraordinary length ; and Professor Owen was to lecture on " extinct animals . " The audience certainly had not that lively , intelHo-ent , well-dressed look which is so characteristic of the Friday evenings at the " Royal , " but still their lugubrious aspect scarce ' ly justified the learned Professor in treating them like charity school children , to whom he would ljenevolently twaddle for an hour , telling them frankly at the beginiiing that he had nothiijg particular to say to them , had prepared no lecture , and wished they could gossip with him to make the thing go more pleasantly I About the same date the same Professor was all earnestness , learning , and animation at scientific societies , or at the theatre in Albemarle Street . We suppose he thought that the London Institution had got into a fossil state , and he tried to enliven its old stones with jokes calculated to make a megatherium grin . ¦' ¦' « '
, To go back to Albemarle Street : we must notice two of the most remarkable of the Friday lectures of the present season—one on the 20 th January by Professor TyNbali ., on flie " Action of Magnetism on the Electric Discharge ; " and one last Friday by Professor Huxiev , on Mr . Daeavin ' s views of the " Origin of Species . " The first was a remarkably able condensation of a very difficult subject , so as to admit of its illustration by a series of admirably selected and brilliantly performed . experiment ' s , assisted by very little ttilking . The most novel feature was the exhibition of an important discovery by Mr . GASSioTjtbat the stratified discharge invacuo , hitherto obtained only from RuiiMkoErii- ' s coil , could be produced by a powerful Gkove ' s battery without any coil at all . The investigations in which Mr . Gassiot has recently been engaged lead to new views of the nature of the electric current , to which we shall endeavbur to return , and pass now to -Professor Huxley ' s exposition of tlie Darwinian theory . '
What the " Vestiges of Creation" did in the way of creating a sensation in the ordinary world of intelligent readers , Mr . Dakwin ' s receiit work has accoiiiplished in scientific circles ; and as Professor Huxley was known to be ones of the earliest converts , . hi * appearance , in the character of an apostle of the new faith , was regarded with no ordinary interest , and accordingly his lecture . wasattended by a very numerous and critical audience , comprehending many of the chief notables in the scientifio world . Mr . Huxley read a carefully prepared paper with an earnestness and emotion that showed how deeply he felt the responsibiiity of the task he had undertaken , and of the position in wliich he stood ; He deprecated the way in which his friend ' s hypothesis had been treated ; upon grounds totally distinct from those . of science , and , eloquently
defended the right and ' . the duty ' of the students of nature to exercise unfettered liberty iri investigating and interpreting the great volume exposed to their view . He then passed to the inquiry of what is a species P—and selecting a horse as an illustration , briefly described its structural or morpholugical characteristics , tracing their connection with those of the rhinoceros , the tapir , and the hyrax . But structural peculiarities , such as the development of the one middle finger or toe in the horse , and the rudimentary condition of the adjacent fingers or toes , were not all that characterised the equine species ; there was also the physiological property of producing prolific offspring—a property which might be broadly identical
affirmed' to exist only among animals whose species was . . Mr . Huxley then traced the easy gradations . by which the horse of the present day was connected with the horses of the Tertiary period and with the pnleotherimn , which in many respects resembled the modern . tapir ; but he did not venture to affirm that tho horso was the descendant of those earlier beasts . Passing to pigeons he pointed Out the amazing structural clift'eteaces between the supposed primitive form of the species , the rock pigeon , and the pouter , tho osm-ier * , tho fantuil , and tho tumbler ; and ho showed that in thecase of the pouter the difference extended to the addition of vertebra ) , and in the fantuil to the multiplication of tho tail fouth-ers .
These- illustrations certainly tended to shako faith in nice morphological grounds for uiatinguisliing specius , but hu confessed that the new theory throw no liglit upoxi tho physiological problem , which is after all the most important . In conclusion , tho Professor intimated his readiness to accept all tho consoquoncoH which aro likely to ( low from the new hypothesis , and declared there was leas difference between man and the highest form of monkey , than between the monkeys thuinsolves ! Our task now is not to inyestigalo Mr . Darwin ' s , views , but simply to notice what is occurring' in tho louturo world ; and whether Professor Huxlky succeeds in making- converts , or ¦ is himself reconverted , ho deserves credit for . courage and integrity , and it ja honourable to the Royal Institution that it should have taken * so envjy an opportunity of bringing buforo its membors » i subject . that will for Homo timo to come be foremost in tho minds of thinking
men . It is , howover , to bo reiniu-koil that Profoasor Huxx . ry scarcely touchod upon tlie doctrine of nuturul Beluofcion , which is tho moat important tjiub Mr . Daiuvin law brought forward , und wliiuh wo should like to hear him treat on uuothor oocuaiow .
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« XTn Pilvo J ' rodii / iu ' . Ooni 6 . Uo on olnii .. Aotos . Par Albxanpub DaMASlTlIrt . Tavls . 1359 .
Lectures Axd Institution. Of
01 LECTURES AXD INSTITXJTIO ^ nS .
' A Modern Iwencui -Dllama..*
A MODERN li \ ttENCll BllAMA .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 18, 1860, page 160, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2334/page/12/
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