[Editorial Note.]—In the bundle of papers which contained the foregoing lectures, some letters of great interest were found, which show that the fame of the learned Lady Professor of Girtham College had already gone abroad, and attracted the attention of the leading statesmen of the day. It is to be regretted that the answers to these letters are not forthcoming, as it might be proved from them that the science of polemical mathematics has already influenced the minds of our legislators in their conduct [61] of affairs at home and abroad. The following letter is of unique interest, and may be taken as evidence of the favourable impression which this new science has made on the mind of one of our greatest thinkers and statesmen:
Downing Street,
May, 18—
My dear Lady Professor,—The report of the amazing results of your scientific researches has reached me, and I congratulate you most heartily on the originality and acumen which you have displayed in your investigations. A new light has dawned upon our country. Instead of groping in the darkness of political warfare, ensnared by party ties and jealousies, the statesmen of the future will be able to calculate and determine the correct course with mathematical precision and perfect accuracy. No one can dispute the truth of a proposition in Euclid, or the genuineness of Newton’s laws; and if your method enables men to [62] calculate and determine the correct political course of action, to solve political problems as easily as exponential equations, why—then adieu to the bickerings of party, the querulous complaints of the Opposition! Nay, joy to the Ministry! There will be no Opposition! Our statesmen will be able to guide the great ship of the State by means of charts which know no error; and they will resemble an association of savants met together to determine the exact moment of the transit of Venus, or to examine the degree of density of a comet’s tail.
This condition of Parliamentary procedure is much to be desired; you have shown how such an ideal state of things may be obtained. In the name of the Government I thank you for your endeavours on behalf of your country’s welfare, and look forward to a further development of your admirably conceived system. As in the domain of ordinary science there are complex questions which defy the acumen of the philosopher; [63] so in polemical science there may be questions which present the same difficulties and complications. But as the first are daily yielding before the persevering attacks of the mathematician, so I doubt not polemical science will soon overcome the various problems which may arise.
But it is mainly on my own account that I venture to address you. I desire to consult you with regard to certain matters—political complications—which have recently occupied the attention of Her Majesty’s Ministers. By the help of your new science, can you aid us in our deliberations? Of course, I am writing to you in strict confidence, and beg that you will keep this communication profoundly secret. I fear that would be a hard task for many of your sex, who do not possess your knowledge and powers of mind; but I have great confidence in your discretion.
These are the problems which are presented to us for solution:
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1. Some members of the Cabinet are secretly in favour of Protection, and the country is rather stirred by the question. Can you, from your knowledge of the contact of curves and nations, help us to determine what course we ought to take with regard to Spain, for example? Are the principles of Adam Smith mathematically correct?
2. I observe that England is represented mathematically by an ellipse. Are we right in assuming that Ireland is a portion of that ellipse? Or, on the other hand, in our chart of nations, must we describe that troublesome country as a rotating parabola, or complex figure, altogether outside our more favoured State?