Page:Reflections on the decline of science in England - Babbage - 1830.pdf/188

 Those who advocated these alterations, were in no hurry for their hasty adoption; they were aware of their magnitude, and anxious for the fullest investigation before one of them should be tried.

Unfortunately, the concluding recommendation of the Committee did not coincide with the views of Mr. Gilbert, whom the party had determined to make their new President. That gentleman made such arrangements for the Council of the succeeding year, that when the question respecting the consideration of the Report of that Committee was brought forward, it was thrown aside in the manner I have stated (page 149.) Thus a report, sanctioned by the names of such a committee, and recommended by one Council to "the most serious and early consideration of the Council for the ensuing year," was by that very Council rejected, without even the ceremony of discussing its merits. Was every individual recommendation it contained, not merely unfit to be adopted, but so totally deficient in plausibility as to be utterly unworthy of discussion? Or did the President and his officers feel, that their power rested on an insecure foundation, and that they did not possess the confidence of the working members of the Society?