The enlightened friends of science very reasonably expected that a service of such importance to society as the invention of the Safety-lamp, would have commanded the gratitude of the State, and obtained for its author a high parliamentary reward; nor were there wanting zealous and disinterested persons to urge the claims of the Philosopher: but a Government which had bestowed a splendid pension upon the contriver of an engine[60] for the destruction of human life, refused to listen to any proposition for the reward of one who had invented a machine for its preservation. It is true that, in consideration of various scientific services, they tardily and inadequately acknowledged the claims of Davy, by bestowing upon him the dignity of Baronetcy[61]--a reward, it must be confessed, that neither displayed any regard to his condition, nor implied the just estimate of his merits. The measure of value, however, enables us to judge of the standard by which the State rates the various services to society; and deeply is it to be lamented that the disproportioned exaltation of military achievement, crowned with the highest honours, depresses respect for science, and raises a false and fruitless object of ambition. [60] Sir William Congreve, in addition to other marks of favour, received a pension of twelve hundred a-year, for the invention of his Rocket; or, in the exact terms of the grant, "for inventions calculated to destroy or annoy the enemy." [61] He was created a Baronet on the 20th of October, 1818. The passion for arms is a relict of barbarity derived from the feudal ages; the progress of civilization, and the cultivation of the mind, should have led us to prefer intellectual to physical superiority, and to recognise in the successes of science the chief titles to honour. This reversal of the objects of importance can never be redressed until the aristocracy shall be possessed of a competent share of scientific knowledge, and instructed to appreciate its value. To effect such a change, the system of education so blindly and obstinately continued in our great public schools, must be altered; for minds exclusively applied to classical pursuits, and trained to recognise no other objects of liberal study, are indisposed and indeed disqualified for enquiries ministering to the arts of life, and arrogantly despised for their very connexion with utility. It is in the early ignorance of the rudiments of science that the after negligence of science has its source.