in the view I have taken of this subject, appears
from several circumstances. A question was asked respecting these
appointments at the Anniversary before the last; and, from the nature of
the answer, many of the members of the Society have been led to believe
the objections have been removed. Several Fellows of the Society, who
knew these facts, thought it inexpedient ever to vote for placing any
gentleman on the Council who had accepted these situations; and,
having myself the same view of the case, I applied to the Council to be
informed of the names of the present Scientific Advisers. But although
they remonstrated against the PRINCIPLE, they replied that they had "NO
COGNIZANCE" of the fact.

The two first members of the Council, Mr. Herschel and Captain
Kater, who were so appointed, and who had previously been Resident
Commissioners under the Act, immediately refused the situations. Dr.
Young became one of the Advisers; and Captain Sabine and Mr. Faraday
were appointed by the Admiralty as the two remaining ones. Of Dr. Young,
who died shortly after, I shall only observe that he possessed knowledge
which qualified him for the situation.

Whether those who at present fill these offices can be said to belong
to that class of persons which the Order in Council and the Act of
Parliament point out, is a matter on which doubt may reasonably be
entertained. The Order in Council speaks of these three persons as being
the same, and having the "SAME DUTIES" as those mentioned in the Act;
and it recites the words of the Act, that they shall be persons "WELL
VERSED IN THE SCIENCES OF MATHEMATICS ASTRONOMY, AND NAVIGATION." Of
the fitness of the gentlemen who now hold those situations to pronounce
judgment on mathematical questions, the public will be better able to
form an opinion when they shall have communicated to the world any
of their own mathematical inquiries. Although it is the practice to
consider that acceptance of office is alone necessary to qualify a man
for a statesman, a similar doctrine has not yet prevailed in the world
of science. One of these gentlemen, who has established his reputation
as a chemist, stands in the same predicament with respect to the other
two sciences. It remains then to consider Captain Sabine's claims, which
must rest on his skill in "PRACTICAL ASTRONOMY AND NAVIGATION,"--a claim
which can only be allowed when the scientific world are set at rest
respecting the extraordinary nature of t