Lord Granville, in distributing the prizes yesterday week to the
successful students of the Hanley School of Art, remarked on the complete extinction of the sort of scepticism which used to exist as to the utility of scientific labours. He related how, in 1847, a party was assembled at Prince Metternich's to witness a great eclipse, and as the moment drew near, one gentleman, given to money-making, who was a member of the party, said to one of the cleverest of the astronomers pre- sent, " You do not believe in this sort of nonsense, do you ?" At the present time, such a remark, from a person in such a position, would be nearly impossible. Every- body believes that science can accomplish the greatest marvels, and the difficulty is to check one's credulity. Mr. Graham Bell, for instance, had promised Lord Granville a pair of spectacles for the ears which would enable him to hear as well as the sharpest- eared prize-taker present, and he had some thoughts of " bottling a little wise posthumous advice to his young son in a phonograph, to be uncorked at set periods after his death, when he is capable of understanding it." That is not a bad idea, and it would be a still better one to bottle some of these entertaining speeches of Lord Granville's for consumption in other places than those where they are first delivered. Why not give out, for instance, that at Leeds or Exeter the address will be delivered by a phonograph specially bottled by Lord Granville ? With a good portrait of the Earl behind the phonograph, and his actual voice issuing from it, half the country might enjoy the advantages of his lighter thoughts, without any additional trouble to himself.
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