The Express.
London, England, 1846-09-11 00:00:00

EVENING, SEPTEMBER 11, 1846.

bY the Dagnied ramacirs d the Belli Aartallaa, Owe is ant
simiconal watch alb be nada& raft at thla lbw la dr at Mr.
Haturt_lll”banun as wry an bca try cor emalaner the
Yeast abaft la waft Oa and newsy be Thia ll*
Rapp wall law law lasa neelbri. tiara anaboar Ira
ma Ina amasablell ebb dr pa pavan aerle in the
kasetleap a re anagale d manatein. and d Iran ;
ma kaaandp bdai la gnat maw am a in
which the Ammaistia Yr takes and is MX akins a earplonom
sham by the anaka at tin Maeda and IN malaratent a its In-
-111 onset Inveitlentlane tilde* ha” be twaimittad with great seal
' and mem by Its valud members, Mr. Iladelderan and Mr. Fair-
bairn.

Whilst on this topic I may observe, that in the recent improve-
ment,' in railways the aid ot scientific investigation was culled for by
the cavil engineer, to main him in determining with accuracy the
power to be provided for ensiling tie' high velocities of he and
tix2mailes en hour; and it was found and admitted by the first
;;;that the very best data for this purpose, and in: the
;iments of any practical aloe, were thou. which bad been
Provided vane years ago by a Committee of the British Amain
Mmear. published in our Transactions. The Institatkm of aru
thus lave testimony to the practical value of our researches
by adeptlng their re ore.
However imperfect my knowledge of Noah subjects may be, I must
also sake that the last alma of our Reports maxim two contri-
banana experimental isoky. the de'Pe't
throatiest ea prostimi inetru Lave n bout canoms— von, at the request
of the Aimeadmisna 4the Mims of its benign seadjaers.
Mat mom sciences of a peolber kind everywhere exista, or is
formai in the elansepletro eisetritel ugangly, both nature! and arti-
ficial, hod keg been reptehdly bona the pariateney of the
odour dirsdeged log orb , and Its tnewiltreas• by contact to
other mew. prim to When I Alla hiliaalter advert
•e Ms widow of our, prosoktotlesi discovery, Is, Isowesue, the tint
philosopher who mdette investigate the Wore et Ibet sobstanoe;
and. ass* the lametigetietris ant 3v:t magi*, he Ms been snabled
to report us Incomidenhio tee in this Mak sal raked sob-
' )tet of ramorch.
A rergamt dram the Assochasa to sea leanssood
and at countryman, Dr. Lam Mayfair. ewegini week • metributioa
of small nmeaus towards the wipowees involved in the nedurtehing,
has prodneed a report on Use resslition sod prefects of bon•tur-
noose, which le of the greatest Woe la a meamendsi view to one of
the most important of oar mmulcelurea, end poseemes, at the same
time, a very high interest be cissealsid seism in some of the views
which it developes. On the see lard, it exhibits an ebtircly new
theory of the • reduction, by mons gm Is this tided agent, of iron
from the ore: on the other, Behove tiaa is addition to a vast saving
of fuel, about two awL of en-ansmaindes may daily be collected at
the single eilablishosent 1 Alfrolim, wings the experiments were
made; thus leading in to Infer tad to the ken furnaces of Britain
there may be obtained from vapour wield sow passes away, an enor-
mous quantity of this ralualde mastaime. which would materially
lessen the dependence of our egrieultutiste on foreign guano. It la,
indeed, most gratifying to otnerserthat la pinning this Inquiry into
the gaseous contents of a biasing frinieress==, our asso-
ciates traced out, foot by foot, the most procemes,
and described the fiery products with the seam easereey ea if their
researches had been made on the table eta laberathry.
Weighed however only la the scales of absolute andbomedlaie utility,
the remarkable results of these skilful and elaborate experiments give
them a character of national importance, and justly entitle the au-
thors and the body which has aided them to the public thanks.
After this glance at the subjects of purely physical science treated of
In the last volume of our Transactions, let us now consider
the domains of natar al history; and as one of the cultivators
of a science which has derived its main support rod most of
its new and enlarged views from naturalists, let me express
the obligation which cantatas are under to this ANIOCIaLIOO,
for having aided so effectively in bringing forth the zoological re-
searches of Owen, Again, and Edward Forbes. Thole three
of its
men have themselves announced, that hi default of its
countenance and assistanee, they would not have undertaken, and never
could have completed, mine of their most important inquiries. Agana.
bream*, had not otherwise the means of coruparmg the ichthyolites
of the British Ines with them of the Continent of Eurepe. Without
this impulse, OW= would not have applied his profound knowledge
of compared, e anatomy to British ford saurian"; and Edward Forbes
might never have been the explorer of the depths of the .Egean. nor
have revealed many hitherto unknown laws of submarine life, if hia
wishes and suggestions had not met with the warm anima of this
body, and been supported by its strongest recommendations ,to the
naval authorities.

Vase allusions to naturalists, whose works have affbrded the •
&meat supports tee geology, might lead me to dilate at length on the
recent progress of this science, but as the subject has been copiously
crested at succeseive 'universities of the Geological tioelety of Lon-
don, and has had its reoent advances so clearly enunciated by the
saint President of that lardy, who now preside. over our Geological
Section, I shall restrain my •• esprit de rope whilst 1 advert to some
of the prominent advances which geologists have made. M hen our
areociate Conybeare reported to us, at our second meeting, on the
actual state and ulterior prospects of what he well termed the ar-
elueolcury of the globe," he dwelt with }suttee on the numerous
researches in different C3ll!nrifil which had eh arty eatablisbed the
history of a descent, as it were, into the towels of the earth—which
led le in a word, downwards through those newer ;Jenrette that con-
nect high antiquity with our own period, into those strata which sup-
port our great British coaktields. Beyond this, however, the per-
spective was dark and doubtful—
". Iles alai terra et caligine :Prem."
Now, however, we have dispersed this gloom, and by researches
that carried out to a distinct classileation in the British Inks, and
thence extended to Russia and America, geologists have shown that
the recor et of succession, as indicated by the entombment of food' •
animals, are as well ekveloped in these very ancient or paloozoic
strata as in any of the overlying or more receutly formed depoaita
After Wilily many years in this department of the science, in con-
junction with Sedpriek, Lansdale, Dc Venieuil, Keyserling, and
others of my fellow-labourers, I have arrived at the conclusion, that
we have tracheal the wry genesis of animal life upon thc globe, and
that no further " vestigia revers= " will be found beneath that
protozoic or Lower Silurian group in the greet inferior
mass of which no vertetrated animal has yet been de-
tected, amid the countless profusion of the lower order,
of marine animals entotubed in it. But however this '
may be, it Is certain that in the lent few years all Canaria and
Eastern Earope, and even parts of Siberia, have been brought into
accordance with British grata. Francs has been accurately classi-
fied and illustrated by the splendid map of Elie de Beaumont soil
Dufrenoy; and whilst, by the labours of Deahayes and other., Be
tertiary fragla have been copiously described, the organic remains of
its secondary strata are now undergoing a complete analysis In the
beautiial work at M. Alcide d'Orbigny. Belgium, wham mineral
structure and geological outlines have been delineated by D'Oniallus,
d'ilalloy and Dumont, has 'induced very perfect monographs of its
palicomic and tertiary Dwells, the tint in the work of M. de Koninirk,
the second in the recently published monograph of M. Nyst.
Germany, led on by Von Duch has shown Cleat she can now cis
materially strengthen the zoologiAl and botanical groundworka of the
science, as in the days of Werner she was eminent in laying those
mineralogical foundations which have been braught 0.1 near to
perfection by the labium of several living men. So numerous in fact
have been the contribotions of (Senna° geologists, that I cannot per-
mit myself to specify the names of individuals in a country which
bongs so many who are treading closely in the dips of an Blirenbei g
and a lime. As distinctly eanneeted, however, with the objects of
this meeting, I must be permitted to state that the eminent b kunst
Goeppert, whose work., in combination with More of Adolphe
Brinigniart in France, have shed an much light on fawn plants,
has just sent to me, for communication to our Geological Section,
the results of his latest Inquiries into the formation of the coal of
I Silesia—results which will be the more interesting to Dr. Duckland
I and the geologists of England, because they are founded on data
equally new and originaL Italy has also to • great extent been
I prevented to us in it. true general geological facies, through the la-
' boors of Sismondi, alarinora, Pareto and inhere; whilst our kinsmen
of tit, far tVmt hawse ably developed the structure, of their respective
Statea, that our countryman Lyell has informed us, that the excel-
lent map which 110e0MiCelliell his work upon North America is simply
the grouping together of data prepared by native State pollywog,
which he has paralleled with our well-known Britiali types.
If then the astronomer has, to a vast extent, expounded the rnecha-
niam of the heavens; if Lately, through the great telecom* of our
emaciate the Earl of Rossc, he las amigned a fixity old order to
bodice which were previously viewed as mere nebula floating in
spsee, and has also inferred that the surface-cavities in our near, at
neighbour of the planetary system are nnalogoeut to the volcanic aper-
tures and depremmos of the earth; the geologist, contributing data of
another order to the great storehouse of natural knowledge, has deter-
mined, by al volute and tangible preofs, the precise manner in which our
planet has been successively enveloped in divers cerements, each
with peculiar forms of dieetenct II e, and has marked the
eevohutboe which have interfered with these IeIIOCTISiVe creations,
from the earliest dawn of living things to the limits of the historic
era. In short, the fundamental steps gained in ge logy, since the
eerly days of the British Association, arc SD remarkable and ea nume-
rous, that the time has now come for a second report upon the pea
Macao of this science, which may I trust be prepared fur an approach-
ing, if not for the next meeting.
Intimately connected with these broad views of the progress of
geology is the na:earance of the first volume of a national work by
Sir Henry De LI:: the and his asiociatcs in the "Geological Survey of
Great lintain." as it does, upon the issue of numerous
detailed coloure." ..miss and sectiona, which for beauty of execution
and exactness of detail are unrivalled, I would specially direct
your attention to this new volume as affording the clearest evi-
aenee that geology is now strictly brought within the pale of the
fixed sciences. In it are found graphic neicript ens of the strata in
the south-wrai of England and south Wales, whose breadth and
length arc accurately measured, whose mineral changes are chemi-
cally analysed, and whose imbedded remains are compared and deter-
mined by competent pal:ontologists. The very statistics of the science
are thus laid open, theory is made rigorously to depend on facia, and
the proeesees and produce of foreign mines are compared with thaw
of Britain.

ifiten we know bow intimately the Dirmlor.General of this
Survey and bii associates have been palmated with the meetings
of the lltituh Association and how they have ftvely discussed
with us many par .s their researches—when we recollect that the
geologist of Vorl.shire, our invaluable Assistant General Secirwsa.
around whom all our arrangements since ow origin have
and to whom so much of our success is due, occupier his fitting
place among these worthies—that Edward Forbes, who pawed as
it were from this MAPOCLItiOII to the Egean, to the palsontologist of
this survey; and again when we retleet, that if this woodation had
not repaired to Glasgow, and there discovered the merits of the
surrey of the late of Arran by Mr. Ramsay, that young stssolo;,ist
would never have become a valuable contributor to the volume under

ConsieTsiijm=li IsoTriiTusfrO; Thee statements saws, that
the annual visits of our body to different parts of the empire,
by bringing together kindred sprits, and in testing the natural
capacity of individual., do most effectually advance science and
benefit the British community. Whilst considering these labours
of the government geologists, I shall now specially speak of those of
Professor E. Forbes in the some volume, because be here makes him-
rolf doubly weleotne, by bringing to us as it were upon the spot
the living specimens Mout:marine ereatunss, which through the praise-
, worthy enthusiasm of Mr. McAndrew, ens of our members,who fitted
out a lags yacht for natural.bistaa7 researches, have been dredged
up this summer by these naturalists from the southern coast,
between the laad's End end Southampton. As a favorite yachting
' port like Southampton may, it is hoped, afford imitators, I point out
with pleasure the liberal example of Mr. McAndrew, who not pro.
league to describe the specimens he co'dects, has on this, as on former
occasions, placed them in the hands of the members best qualified to
do them judice, and is thus a substantial promoter of science.
The memoir of Edward Forbes in the Government Geological Surrey
is, in truth, an extension of his views respecting the calves of the pre-
sent distribution of plants and animals in the British isles, first made
known at the last meeting of the British Association. As this author
has not only shown the application of these ideas to the researches of the
British Geidogical Survey, but also to the distribution of animals and
plants over the whole earth, it is evident that these views, in reit part
original, will introduce a new clam of inquiries into natural history,
which will link it no more cloudy than ever to geology and geogra-
phy. In short, this paper may be viewed as the find attempt to
explain the causes of the zoological and botanical features of any
region anciently in connexion. Among the new points which It cos-
tume, I will now only mention, that it very ingeniously (and I think
most satisfactorily) explains the origin of the peculiar lestures of the
botany of Britain—the theory of the origin of Alpine Floras distri-
buted far apart--the peculiarity of the zoology of Ireland as
compared with that of England—the preeence of the same
species of marine animals oil the masts of America and Europe
—the specialities of the marine nrology of the British seas
called for by this Amchitka—the peat and present distribution
of the Migharrenem Plea;-414 lastly, it applies the
knowledge we passe ',the dhtribationef pants to the elucidation of
the batony of the soperileal detritus, termed by geologists, the
Northern Drift"
Amid the numerous anligates kw reflection which the perusal of this
memoir occasions, I mot row restrict myself to two brief com-
ments. First, to myna tay belief that even Humboldt Mairelf, who
has written no mosh sal as atedrahly on Alpine flora, will admit
that ma elemilea eteMmtka of the origin of identity removes
a great stnz=blasit *OM tot path of botanical geo-
Dm some years endeavoured
=dm hiplabltadefled erroneously applied their
view; as Laded • Mowing pbeasatena, to large regions
of Needier& laregft-ithielk mat Ma been under the sea during
the diarlbogion el Oreada NZZastionvel and beelike; I cannot
bat Sellialf /4 a of Sat 'Mika when
, I dad ma amid a i=et se Edward !baba seeteiniart
emes.ragistew perdedy iedepaadeot Infamies emaratmg ake
Ma of to Wad mealmmec end by MAY= mimalmart
e mt If
the sma dram moldmi tlmm
meadalla. AM I mimedo ase s 7 Ms:l
both the above polmlm. arm Mamma la swat ar Ye
samba theories. Remiss the blocks sad maim boo

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thetre=erthsdlot= East te wawara elthavoi a eons den
orl by the Width loath aftl=egaitles gaisZdanisl roe= 411=
been lett !Wilson. Ithlarseee was atheindsoltheiougbly
the reseabises of Prebienter Oeiskomaennitobed to this
Asexhaties : deeds the —htheaUsthasby whisk Ms regret with. ex-
tinct itiunmais of thasketh Ii twainwith awl WM new la detailed
reference to or limb in his resway yollithel week " On the Ex
iling Plea maid' Illthinaha:—• work "Ida hear stated in blo
delimit= erliasYi at these et the MEM heasheloa. Professor
Omni silkheieed. 10 as stowellief ear rasa meeting, by
wets" on Of one of war seethes. width bevies in its
Milo bow y occupied la ef tholtdos, Is woe wore
, yawl. kid, devoted to the cultivation . Mike soak a
thaw I hew a right athieiple that well= will
anidi& evidswea et toth wow, awl will else* Mos the vest
wagon that has then aside osesel sompetethe
idea thefts of Ether std ef Cathie, the so throe a port al=
we are thddieth to oar .Acct asessithe.
Amodio( la a easseth 'bib hes the gad them le have been
Mostratth by the attandse mid platabse Wary ef the saturalivt
et thilonth los assillth *stew heath asatith whew Yours I
would saw spasiallg alulort.lll4:dationest. the =woo as ft
is prodded ewe twthst= ohs lea the athecest
lloweth ef thud at with se may Girth theso
welsonwett of the wed/. awl In on smooth Wm es te yonder
thou Aloft yea theft ef wow nada& The nowt at Ws John
Rithwithso Is the last en the Plass of Oath Japes sod New
Zealwth 410111101111 WM his amount in intro volumes of the
lbw of North Ameba. may to regenba as baying completely
raesdelled our knowledge of the pagesekleth distribution of
Oaths ; bet by tamale the dab. and nezt by explain-
ing the canoes through width a sionmunity of khthydos
&kg characters to in some wakes widely spread, and in
others restricted to limited rages. We now know, that just as the
lofty mountain is the harrier glib separates different animals and
Aants, as well as peculiar seriatim of man, so the deepest saes are
limits which peremptorily Mob the wide diffusion of certain genera
and species of fishes ; whilst the biters eaten of numerous ialands,
and still more the continuance of lands Moo an ocean, ensures
the distribution of similar forms over many of latitude and
longitude.
The general study indeed, bath of zoology and botany, basteen
singularly advanced by the labours of the Section of Natural History.
I cannot have acted for many years an your General Seen-tarn with-
out deterring, that by the spirit in which this sartion has of late years
been conducted, British naturalise; have annually become more
phikaophieal, and have given to their inquiries a more physiological
character, and have more and more studied the higher questions of
structure, laws, and distribution. This cheering result has mainly
arisen from We personal intimacy brought about among various
individual., who, living at great distances from each other, were
previously never congregated ; and from the mutual encouragement
imparted by their interchange of views and their comparisons of spe-
cimens. Many active British naturalists have in fact risen tip since
these meetings commenced, and many (in addition to the examples
already alluded to) have pursued their science directly under the en-
couragement we have given them. The combination of the enthu-
siastic and philosophic spirit thus engendered among the naturalists
has given popularity to their department of Friend, and this section,
banning an importance to which during our earliest meetings it
mug show comparatively gendr: claims, has vigorously revived
the study of natural hiotorv, and among other prods of It, lust
given rise to that excellent publishing body, the Ray SoSety, which
begot its anniversary during our sittings. Any analysis of the
numerous oriental and valuable reverie and memoirs on bo-
tanical and zoological subjects which hare enriched our volumes
to forbidden by the limits of this address, but I cannot omit to
advert to the extensive illeeeNl of Mr. 11. Strickland'e report on
Zoological Nomenclature, which has been adopted and circulated by
the naturalises of Prance, Germany and America, and ales by those of
Italy headed by the Prince of Qualm. In each of these countries
the code drown up by the Amunation has been wanly
and through it we may look forward to the great advantage being
gained, of the ultimate adoption of an uniform zoologiud numencim
hire all over the globe.
Whibd Investigation into the geographical distribution dant-nal%
and plants have occupied a large Ware of the attention of our
Browne and oar Darin., it is groom to ere that some of our mem-
bers, chiefly connected with physical researches, are now bring-
ing these data of natural history to bear upon climatology and
physical geograph . A committee of our naturalist., to whom
the subject was referred, has published in our last volume on excel-
lent genes of instructions for the observation of the periodical phe-
nomena of animals and planes, prepareel by our foreign aeaociate M.
Quetelet, the Astronomer Royal of Belgium. Naturalists have loog
been collecting coterminous on the effects produced by the annual
return of the seasons, but their various natural history calenoluni
being lord, required comparbon and concentration, as orgies!!y
suggested by Linnieus. This has now for the first time been executed
by the Belguin Astronomer, who tilowing out a plan suggeeted by
himself at our Plymouth meeting, has brought together the oontn-
b dams and suggestions of the naturalist. of Ls men country. %lieu
M. (luetelet remarks, " that the phases of the smallest Wert are
bound up with the plumes of the plant that nourishes it ; that plant
Itself being in Ito gradual development the product, in some sort, of
all anterior modiliestiocus of the soil and atnuophere," tie compels the
adoniesico, that the study which should embrace all periodical phe-
WWII& both diurnal and annual, would of itself form a se.euir as
extended as inetructive.

Referring you to M. Quetelet's report for an explanation of the
dependence of the vegetable and animal kingdoms on the tneteoro-
logy and physics of the globe, and hoping that the simultaneous uta-
eel-rations he inculcates will he followed up in Britain, I am glad to
be able to announce, that the outline of a memoir on phyakal geo-
graphy was some mouths ago put into my hands by Mr. Cooley,
which in a great degree coinciding with the system of M. Quetekt,
boa ultimately a very different object. M. quetelet chiefly aims
at investigating the dependence of organised bodies on into.-
Jeanie.' matter, by observing the periodical phatoniena of the
former. Mr. Cooley seeks to obtain an acquandance with the
name phi:cm:awful for the sake of learning and registering einqc-
relive climate as an element of %Iron& agriculture. speaking to you
In a county which is so mainly dependent on the produce of seal,
I cannot have a more favourable upportunay for wialciating the
value of the suggestions of this British geographer. Ibe menden.
establishment of all the data of physical geography throughout the
British islands ; i. e. the registration of the 'man and extremes of
the temperature of the air and of the earth ; the amount of conduc-
tion, rulaatitm, moisture, and ?magnetism ; the suseesown of cations
phases of vegetation, Kr. (with their several local collections for
elevation and aspect), must certainly prove CIAIdUCiVO to the intercsio
of science, and arc likely to promote some material intensely of our
country.
A minute knowledge of all the circumstances of climate cannot but
be of importance o those whore industry only succeeds through the
co-operation of nature, and it may therefore be inferred that such a
report as that with which 1 trust Mr Cooley will favour us, if hallowed
op by full and complete tables, will prove to be a most useful
public document. laubibing the ardour of that author, I might al-
most hope that such researches In physical geography may enable ua
to define, in the language of the poet,
" lit quid queuque knot rsgio, et quid illumine recuset."
At all events, such a report will tend to raise physical geography in
Britain towards the level it has tittainod in hiocia under the aegis of
Humboldt and Bitter, and by the beautiful maps of Berghaw.
Though our countryman, Mr. Keith Johnston, is reproducing, in
attractive torero, the comparative maps of the last-anentiemed Prundan
author, mush in sod still remain. to be done in Britain, to plaice the
study of physical geography on a basis worthy of this great exploring
and colunisingnaton ; and us one of thu higttly useful elementary
to the training of the youthful mind to acquire a right perouption
of the science, I commend the spirited project of a French geograptit r,
M. Guerin, to establish in Landon, a preararna of rod site which shall
teach by strung external relief, the objects and details of which he wall
la the coulee of this week explain to the geographers present.
Iteverting to cutumnical views and the maptuvement of lands, I
would remind our agricultural members, that as their great practical
Society was founded on the model of the British Association, we hope
they will always come to our Sections for the soluton of any qutst ions
relating to their pursuits to which can be given a purely scientlic an-
swer. If they ask fur the explanation of the dependence of vegetation
upon subsoil or soil, our geologists and bot.m ists arc ready to reply to
them. Ia it a query on the comparbiun of the relot lee value of metro-
twins destined to atom... Wale labour, the mechanicians now faa nt
arc capable of answering It. Awl if, abuse all, they cob tio to solve
their doubts respecting the qualities of soil and the results of their
mixture., or the effects of various manures upon them, our chemists
are at hael. One department of our Institutaon is in fret styled the
Section of Ltendstry and Mineralogy, with their apleiratiams to Agri-
culture and the Arts, and is ufficiercal in part by the very men, John-
ston, Ilautieny, and Mayfair, to whom the agriculturists have in
nearly all cases appealest first-mentioned of there was one of
our earliest friends and founders; the second had the merit of
standing by the British Association at its first meeting, and there
inviting us to repair to that great University where be aa en roach
respected, and where he is now steadily determining, by elaborate
experiments, the de:.endence of many species of plants on soil, air,
and stimulus; whilst the third has already been alluded to as use of
our best contributor..
. _

If In reviewing our preen= labours I have endeavoured to gain
your attention by wine incidental allusions to our present proceedings,
I have yet to anure you, that the memoirs communicated to our
secretaries arc sufficiently numerous to occupy our sections during
the ensuing week with all the vigour which has marked our opening
day. Among the topics to which our assembling at Southampton
glees peculiar (merest, I may still say that if foreign and English
geoloesti should find much to interest then, in the laic of Wight, the
same island contains a field for a very curious joint discussion betwen
the mathematicians and the geologist., with which I became ac-
quainted in • previous visit to this place. It is a deanery by Coioncl
Colby, the Director of the Trigooonietricul Survey, of the eaiatenoe of
• considerable attraction of the plumb-line to the south, at the trigs-
eometrical station called Dunmire, on !nankin Mown. The details
of this singular phenomenon, which has been verified by numerous
observations with the best zenith sectors, will be laid before the sec-
tions. In the meantime, we may well wider that thin low chalk range
in the lisle of Wight should attract, in one parallel at least, with mole
than Mill the iateniity of the high and crystalline mountain of scheluil-
lion in the Highlands of'Scotland, whilst no other chalk bill in the
South of England exhibit. ouch a phenomenon. Sun thou. of our
wh. like Mr. Hopkins have entered the rich acid aerological
dynamics, explain this ranarlable fan, either by the mculm struc-
ture and distribution of the ridge of upheaved strata which rams as 1
bock-bone from east to west through the ishmd, or by referring It to
dense plutonic masses of rock ranging beneath the sue Lies along the
line of displacement of the default,.
Another local subject —one uidecd of positive practical interest—
that stands before us for discumion is, whether, by persevering in
deepening the large shaft which they have sunk so deep into the
chalk near this town, the inhabitants of Southington may expect
to be eventually repaid, like thew of Pane, by • full supply of
subterranean water, which shall rime to the surface of the low
plateau on which the work has been undertaken I On no occa-
sion, I must observe, could this town be furnished with a greater
number of willing counsellor. of divers nations whose opinions will, it
ID hoped, be adequately valued by the city authorities. The question
whether this work ought to be proceeded with or not, will however,
I apprehend, be most effectively answered by those geologists who are
bed acquainted with the sections in the interior of this county, and
with the level. at which the upper greemand and inherence...strata
there crop out and receive the waters, which thence flow southwards
beneath the whole body of chalk of the hills in the south of Hamp-
shire. . . .

Considering that we arc now assembled in the neighbourhood of our
great naval arsenal—that some of its functionaries, including the
Admiral on the station, have honoured us with their supyort, and
that, further, I am now speaking in a town whose magnificent new
docks may compete with any for bold and successful engineering,
I must say a few words on our naval architecture, the more so
as we have here a very strong Mechanical Section, presided over
by that ingenious mechanician Professor Willie, supported by that
great dynamical philosopher and astronomer Dr. Robinson. Duly Ml-
presaed with the vast national importune of this sulvet, and at the
same time of its necessary dependence on mathematical principles,
the British Association in its earliest days endeavo wed to rouse
attention to the state of shipbuilding in England, and to We history
of its progress in France and other countries, through a memoir by
the late Mr. G. Harvey. It was then contended, that notwithstanding
the extreme perfection to which the internal mechanism)! Temas had
been brought, their external forms or lines,.os which their railing so
much depends, were deficient as to adjustment by matk.maticul
theory. Our associate Mr. Scott Rumen has, as you know, ably de-
veloped this view. Experimenting upon the resistance of water, and
ascertaining with precision the forma of vessels which would
pas through it with the least resistance, and ,consequently
with the greatest velocity, he has contributed a most valuable
series of memoirs, accompanied by a great number of dia-
grams, to illustrate his opinions and to show the dependence
of naval architecture on certain mathematical lines. Employed
in the meantime by merchants on their own account, to plan the con-
struction of sailing ships and steamer., Mr. Scott Reused has been so
sucassful in combining theory with practice, that we must feel satis-
fied in having at different meetings helped him onward by several
molter grants our only regret being that our means should not have
p. _hied us to publish the whole number of diagrams of the lines
..ar.fl by this ingenious author.
But however desirous to promote knowledge on this point, the
men of seism. are far from wishing not to pay every deference
to the skilful artificers of our wooden bulwarks, on account of
their experience and practical acquaintance with subjects they
have so long and. se successfully handled. We are indeed
fully aware that the naval architects of th: government, who
mmalamet ma-ts carrying a great weight of metal, and requiring
nosh sty end capacious stowage, have to solve many problems
with which the owners of trading vessels or packets have little con-
cern. All that we lan wish for W. that oar naval arsenals should
.stain scLoois or public boards of ahln.building, in which there
I might be collected all the “eanatants of the art," in reference to ca-

LeltpdsedWierieenent, stowage., validly, pitching and rolling, meeting,
af nails and the residuum et Blade. flaring ourselves ex-
pmnidl antrlbations to an extent which teddy, at all events, our
Me_ la fhb fooffor. we are, I. thank, retitled to exprem a hope, that
amadeelmal frosnwasetamiatezmeelinent navigators may be
ammbissad the almond theory prepared by
Foolthollogo minionotlemi sod moshimioal wiener.
moot tboo lase um wr maid sidosts without saying, that
oar Illbdistkal Seed= boo bus in veal asedueted by in formic ptesi-
=lit its subjada. Idlest all tinuebele diverted Into moral mind-
and thence hllaptildes, hare latest inrariabiy remitted to the
Womb of the science which deals In fade and numbers: and a* ne
wa inditideal has °attributed more to the etorthouae of such valuable
knowledge than Mr. George Porter (as evidenced even by his report
lame lad volume). sia may we believe that in this town with ',Wok
be Iselsabely connected, he will contribute to raise mill higher the
dime tithe Section, over which he Ia so well qualified to fireside.
Via this dimmer I have referred more largely to those branches
orders which pertain to the general division of oatural history, in
which alone I can venture to j edge of the proem. which others am
making, let me however any, that no member of this holy ma appro.
elate more highly than I do, the claims of the mathematical and expe-
rimental parts of in which my friend Professor rirdea
Powell, who supporte mr un Mr merlon as i Vire-President, has taken
so diatinguida d a part. Nu one has wintered with greater ethane-
tion the attendance at our former meetings of men f 141131 all part, of
Darien the moat eminent in them high pureeing. No mead more glory
In laving been an after of this Association when it was hollowed
with the pt ..a of its illustrious correspondent Brod, flout whom
the world has never produced a more profound astronomer. U
among his numerous stdendid discoveries he Banished astrooomme
with what they had eo long and so ardently desired—a fixed and
ascertained point in the immensity of spans, bey ond the limit. of our
owe sidereal system, it is to Berri, as I UM tenured by a contetspo-
; ran worthy of him, that Englishmen owe a debt of gratitude for his
eerate descussion of the obserrations of their immortal Bradley,
which, In his hands, became the base of modern astronomy.
Passing from thes recollection, so proud yet to nem. nful to us
all as friends and admirers of the decered Persian aityonoiner, can
any one ace with more delight th. n myself the Lined concur once
at our present meeting of naturalism, geelogiete phyaidogiete, eth-
nologists, and Manta, with mathematicians, astronomers, meehrud-
cian., and experimental philosophers in physics and in chemistry f
Surely, then, I may be allowed to signalise a particular grimed of
gmthlcation among so many, in the preemie at this minting of two
individuate in our experimental sections, to one of whom, our cent.
Sent foreign associate, Oersted, we owe the first greet link bete eon
electric and niametic ph.oromena, by showing the magnetic pro.
pertice of the galvanic convent; whilst the other, our own Faraday.
alumni other new and great trutlui which have raised the
character of English science throughout the world, obtaileel
theAi crfoyeitrsebe pnroonif
greneentoking,, eteetriell;
wout of numeLie.te.v.
honoured with this chair, to explain how such arm hom you
been
revealed, still as a worshiper in the outer partied of the temp. e of
physical science, be may be permitted to picture to himself the delight
which the Danish philosopher amid have felt when on returning to
our shores, after an absence of a (sunder of a century, he found that
the grand train of discovery of which be is the progyuitor, hod juict
received its erovvniag aceerion in England from his former disciple,
who, through a lung and brilliant series of ineemistatione peculiarly
his own, has shown that magnetic or ilia-magnetic tutees are distri-
buted throughout all nature.

And thou Khali wo euntinise to be a true British Association, with
cosmopolite ennorrions, so lung as we have among us eminent men is
attract such fereilm contemporaries to our Morec. If then at the last
assemble we experienced the good Mfects which flowed from a concen.
oration of profound mathematic Lou and magnii Mims, drawn together
from different European kingdoms— if then atanthe mum (Jr. Everett)
of solid learning, who then repreunted the United States of America,
and who is now worthily presiding over the Caruhridge University of
his native wool, spoke to us with chastened eloquence of the bm. fits
oar institution Was conferring on mankind; let us rejoice that this
=is honoured by the preaenee of foreign philosophers as detain-
. those °rimy former year.
Let us rejoice that we have now among us men of science from
Denmark, Sweden, Bosnia, Prussia, Snit/en:old, Belgium, Italy, awl.
Prate*. The King of Denmark, pima if personally distingulahrd for
his acquaintance with several brooches of natural history, end •
warm patron of science, has honoured us by yenning hither, not icily
time great clisosvererDeratcd, who evincing fresh viwior in his mature
age brings with him new tsirinnunimtaints on phyaiesil miens* but
also my valued friend, the able geologist and chemist Porch:am:ma,
who has produced the first imulisaml map of Dentrutk, and
who his pre-ented to us a lurid memoir on the influence exercised by
marine plants on the formation of ancient crystalline rocks, on the
present sea and on agriculture.
A. theta eminent own of the north received me as the General
Scartary of the British Asaoeiation with their wonted cordiality at
the lust seandinavian Areanibl). I trust w: may convince them, that
the sentiment is reciprocal, and that Paiglishincii ore nearly esart to
them In the virtues of friendship and hotOtality which so distinguish
the dwellers within the circle of Odin.

Still adverting to Scandinavia, we we here a deputy from the rerun_
try of Linnaeus in the person of Prokrieur tivanbern, a sure-.M
young experimenter in phi sins who represents his last mutter,
Iterselim- -that profound ehendst and Luder of the s acme oft
North tat Europe, who estehliebed on a firm ba.i. the laws of atomic
weights and definite proportions, and who has personally assimNl me,
that if our meeting had not been fixed M the Hamill of September,
when the agriculturists of threden amend,* at its. Ahnlm, he would
avauredly have repaired to us. And if the same cause ban preveatid
Nihvion from co mug hither, end h u alateacted Itetein, from ma (who
W.I. till within die e few days in El:gland!' I cannot mention me:, ejs_
tinguished men, who earnestly desired tobs persent, without expert-
sine the hope tint the memoirs they commune de to no may give muds
addition. I 'pippin to our British eihnoiogLits as will enable this new
lama of lISP NA., which inv. stig.ites the rdrin of name and languMtee,
to take the promment place in our amentblien to winch it is. itntJy
entitled.
The limn] Academe of Doran, wltro t deputiva on former neeisinne
have been an Ehrenhivg, a finch. a:al an Erman, kis honoured us by
sending hillier M. tfei.vkh Roar, whose work on chemical in
a text-bouk even fur the tort Mulled eheinads in evivr c.untry ; and
whilst his newan hes on the consist ution of miner.als, like Mono .1 his
eminent brother (aware sin their form, have °Mauled for hint no high
a reputation, he now biller. to us the desiviption of a new metal
which la: lies iliseirvered In the Tam-ilito of Bavaria.

tiwittterl.nal ban again given to us that areat minter in allirmat-
logy, Agamia, and ohm our eld friend Proftmoor eclanhein, who, ta
toliiitiun to his report Olt ozone, to whirl, I have already referred, has
now brought to us a dateovery of ram praclivl importance. The
t• gun-eotton" of statfula•iq the powers ul which he wia exhibit to
his colleaguto, to an explusitv suletume, a Lich, t ICFC:41111( a AftIOSTT
projectile force than gunpowder, at stated to IXTAVA the gist wham -
wro over it of produeing little or no .make or noise, and of an ely
soiling lire-aorta; wham no smotint of wet Injures thin new ooh-
s/awe, which to so oervice.thle alter being triad an In its itit
Lille. The mere mention of thtme ottvert ay. to which oar associate
lays claim for his new material, Is ouAlcient to ollow no extraordinary
value in all warLke ulttiro, us U..° in every tot t of subterron,:ta
blaoting
•... . . . .

Professor Mntteuerl of Modern, who joined no at the York meeting,
and then explained hie curlew, tee and delicate inventigutionia in
eh-a:tree-physiology, iosain Locumn us with a visit, w the repro-cut:A ive
of the Indnut Philosophteal Smith of Modena and of the University
of Piss. 'lbis alktnsioly. phil.nopher, who has Inc:nailed the eltiet
isalraule currente in excit.ng through the neves 111..rhanical forte in
the muscle., armlet,. brines wdla him much internoti,ig contriloitios
a. will sill Fru-it additional Into reel to the li:um-Wing. of the Physio-
logical het-lion.
Having already spoken of the rapid progress which the micro es
arc mallet( in Iteigium, through the labour- 4if nor anynciale gnat.
anti oilmen, it is with lia,oure I antionnee that M. an the
palarintologiet, who hin mainly contributed to this advance and W tl•o
is ha foundation of the geology of hi• country by his excellent work cm
mammon° fossils, ban ben sent to on by hin uwn goverment.
Among them sources of just pride and gratideatiom, no one h it
oriented me simmer pleasure win to welcome hither the umlaut/MIL
Siberian explorer, Profersaur von Middendoi t. Ikeply itnpressrel he I
am with the estimation in which-adults., le 1141 by the Elustrious tutor
of the empire of Ittosia, I cannot hut hope that the pre eence of t the
traveller so singularly distinguished for bin enterprbong exploits nmy
meet with a friend ler every khmlielaman who in aorthiiinted with the
arduous nature of his travels. le traverse Siberia from south to net tic
and Mall weld to east; to reach by land the extreme maths. o beal-
Land of Tainlyr ; to teat I. um, tor the first time, that rim n to the lit:-
nude of deg. north, trees with Muth extent Own...lves in th.t
meridian ; that trope of rye, more abundant than in bin lattice
Livonia, grow beyond Yakutat, on the Purim* of that
frozen submit, the intensity and measure of cold in sitirh
be has determined by thermontetrie experiments, to explain,
through their language and php-iml form, the origin of tithes now
far removed hum their &went stuck ; to explane the tar eastern regions
of the Yea of Ohkotek and of the ebantar lace; to define the remotest
north-ea-tern boundary between China and Rosana ; and &telly to
enrich St. Peters'imarb with the natural productions, both fonnil
ncent, of all these wild and untrodden lands, are the exploits fur which
the Ito> al Geographical Sucisiy of I.ondon haa, at its last net
conferred its Gull Victoria Merkel on this most numeseful explorer.
Profemor Miadtholorf now visits ue to curve Ale with our flatmate.
most able to amiet him, and to invert our museum., in which, by Coll-
part-On, heron best determine the value of speethe character before
hs- completes the description of his coploun accumulations; and i tru-t
that during his stay In England he will be treated with as much
true IlOYpitalily as I have myself received at the baud. of Me kind
countrymen.
It in unpmeible for me to make this allusion to the Ruseian empire
without assuring you that our atilt. in mien:* on the Neva, who have
previously sent to as a Jacobi and a }Conifer, are mainly amines. •.1.
continuing their good connexion with tut. It was indeed a ann.ee - f
great pleasure to me to have recently had personal intercourne in U..+
very town with that eminent ertenlitic navigator Ailoard Lialv-, in
whose squulron his Imperial Highness the (tratsl Duke Constam,s,
was acquiring a knowledge of hi, nit-Wine data,. Ik,itk • the ii.r-
ration of hie former voyages, I.dtkc icon nine pUbl!,hed an acomyt f
the periodical tides in the Great Northern Ocean caul in the lama! Sea,
which I have reason to think bs little known in this country. Having
sij,,,,,,tabliehoa a.lmalngraphe In the White sea, and being also men.
pied from Urne to time in observations in &bring's Strsita, the Ithaveiaree
will soon be able to provide tie with other important additions too;ir
kneel-deco( this nubject. Separated no widely as Admiral Lake meet .r.
wbewell ere from each other, it I. pleasing to we, that the very re-
commendation which the last-mentioned dietingobalied philoenoher ed
the tides ban recently engaged to me, as a nut ism- to be encourarea
by this Association, has Men zealously advocated by the former. Lt
us hate then that this mating wia not pee away without powerfu"iy
mum to our own government, an well as to that of bi-Imge-
tint Majesty, t a systematic and simultaneous investigation of It&
tides in the Great Oman, particularly in the Northern Pacific, betty oh_
ject of special expea‘t ions, --a SU'.2,ll.Ct au. Admiral Li:tk^ well ob.erv,s)
which is not lees worthy of the attention of great nrientilie bail• than
the prelent inquiries into Wrenn-nil urigottion ; and one which, I
may add, thin Aseiciation will &nag:es, warmly nepotist-, since it bait
curb strong grounds fur being salt-fled with the results which it Ls
already contributed to obtain through its own gi ante, and by the re-
searches of several of its associates.

Lastly, in alluding to our foreign uttendants, let me say how well
our nearest neighbow, have responded to our coil, who, imitatlr; tri
example of their enlightened monarch, have .n olky tlicir atitiem,
to Southampton, that in the realm. of mimic", as in public amain,
there ia that entente cord 'ale bet wee!: their great nation and our own,
of which, at a farmer meeting, we were personally anon:el by the
profound Arago himself.
No sooner was it made known that the chdr of ehembery at
this meeting was to be fllksl by 3iiehnel Faradsy, than a
compeer worthy of Mtn is the Academy of Sciences of
Paris was announced in the pereon of M. !Maim. Tu thin sound phi-
loarpher It is well known that we nive, not only the dlsoirery of IL t
law rf ,abetitution of tylies, whiiii has so pow( rfully aided Mt
Cgmof organic ehannistry, but also the annieseful application of
arlenoe to the arta and useful purposes of life; his great work on
that subject, "La Clilmie appliqMe aux Arts," being as Loonier ot
every manufactory in England as it is upon the Conti:mt.
Nor, if we turn from chemistry to geology, min such of as as work
among the melds be backward in our ceprce.! MA of thankfulness, in
witnessing the goodly attendance of our brethren of the honinurfnan
France, woo have come to examtuc, in saw own natural sec-
tions of the Isle of Wight, the peculiar development of their
Paris been, the identity of their chalk and our own, the tie
sections of our greenaand and et the Wadden formation of Mantel!,
and to determine with us in silt, the strict relations of their
Neommian rocks with those peculiar strata which at Atherneld, in
the Isle of Wight, have been SA admirably illustrated by Ilr. Vans
and other native geologists, and of which ouch beautiful and accurate
diutrams have been made by Captain Ibbotrien.
It is utterly impossible that ouch gatherings together of foreign
philorophera with our own should not he productive of much advan-
tage ; for he must indeed he a bad statist in science who knows eat
tied numerous are the works of merit. which or published in periodi-
cals, or in the volumes of societies of one country, which remain ale-
nether unknown in another; and dill less am he be acquainted wilk
the present accelerated march of science, who is not aware that Se
germs of discovery which are lying ready in the minds of diarist ann-
temporaries must often be brought into action by such an intceitimp
of thought. The collision of such thoughts may indeed be ample!
to the agency of the electric telegraph of our Wheatstone, which ore-
centrates knowledge from afar, and at once unites the cx • -• f • • 4 ...;•li ..
kingdoms in a COMMAS' circle of intelligence. %It at i.. 1 A. ~.f i
but although the distinguished foreigners to whom I have *„ 711.7, 3 '. \
and others, includingour welcome aasociate M. Wurtmentu - • . •
of the Vaudois Society, and M. Prevost, of Gent va, on u !F.'''. -- - ./. ' ,„f ...
I would willingly dilate if tome permitted It, are now cull, a . .
,:-'. . ' 7....i
lIA; many, among whom I must name M. de Cheunont, t 4 - 11. . ~ .
of the French tiociely fur the advancement of Science, . • ' r.ce.
: • . A'•
vented from honourmg as with their preaence, bemuse
cri'd
W
meetings in their reverel countries deo occur in the of - • • i
tember. To remedy this inoonvenietwe, I ventared, when ly:
you six years ago at the Glidigow meeting, to express the nor . p*le •• - • --•
„.
each of the national European societies might be led to abstain 4grimp .. i. .., %. it
yteAar fromaosembling in ita own country, for tbe puniest.
be email! re--4
by its own deputies to a general rowan.

al

60:

4

- Frankfort or ether central ci wider the prvideed et the shored
sßedHaboldt.
Haraboldt. Red the et ° Omatie," and cidar ego-
- elder at Hat ,owned= Idea to amegt t=
peddles, whi Maemem me" Me MIME
mold hawanggit seled. Iffi
er sembeed Oat may boodle 11 Wane
vend have rralMd mil dot each netleml body, an rememnblhd
' Me ddlavddi per kto nears heel, would have sae el nosy n-
om/ nmseded
hawks addle ray grdeekt beg my sendleymmend Mir teas
Mods mew gmeed. leelein Ole gregeddss hr watroltsitti Is a
than per Sr mgemsdellme et Me -various limbo et dhows ot
dilmed eamtrim When Say may at moos hers the =deed pre-
meds, awl Mrs, at all eves% doyen se sg=
Vlagedeintslivasellard soe m to Mom
Omens iesedip a Firms% denmay, esedfiavls, Italy, Ovittscr-
bred red Ifiestaw4 wide are me ninth to be depurated as totidfflag
with a noted Inteesenna
Finally, my Ildlow-lebamere In science, It by me tidbit saes
we have dm end me dig good public service, Id me timed neer
more to the ees
gl la Mike we are rd agate at year
part the IdaiMedua I lowa emporimee en Oa meths
m wed mhanded by the Mliyeamasm denims. sal pepletere
aosedgeedts dME, as by Ito Inhablleshthemedme—en mien which
Om WNW that the British meeeledea remises al preen and as
dam el an.
esileg user me Her Meet Onion Megiely's Sonelmy Mate
im SWAP Addre, the ggeder of the Mott et Onimens, and
odor =let Ingh Adds rid wry end Indemee,whe
y their ineeme die mole dry cress at the
et ear etaterencee not mminehm to mime dim
vlbstlmddist Individuals as WY, evidences let
et OM geed edam
at er onstrysem the peamden of which wlll timer a mtmed
M war mom Awl Awe as. let us cherish do molleedon at
OY doethaseptan miethig which wilt be rendered memerable to he
are by the presses et the illoatrious COSSISSi der Mimed
llowooyoign, who earadeedes In our Pursuits, la mem brneshee ot
which Ws Baia' Thema la so well versed, thm damerrnalea this
our weelatkm Y tidy satMeddehal,
_and enjoys set sees
'Metall import throaghed Il society, from the mil&
mean et Mince to the highest perionages in the realm.
The President concluded his address amidst the general
applause of the meeting.
Viscount PALMPRSTON said, Gentlemen, although on the
present occasion there are assembled in this room a great
number of persons eminent for their attainments in science,
yet there are also many who, like myself, are only humble
admirers of the attainments °tethers ; professing and possess-
lag no knowledge themselves of the matters in which those dis-
tinguished persons have attained this eminence, I trust it will
not be deemed presumption in me, if being one of perhaps
the most numerous portion of those present, I venture to
propose that we return our thanks to the distin-
guished President of the day for the admirable discourse
on which he has explained to us the object of the meeting of
which we now form a part. (Hear, hear.) It would be
presumptuous in me, indeed, if I were to endeavour to point
out to your attention the many claims which our worthy
President has established to the grititude and admiration of
his fellow-countrymen. (Hear, hear.) It would be impos-
sible for any body more particularly to point out to you
those claims than he has just done himself, in a discourse
which shows that, however eminent he may be in that par-
ticular department of knowledge to which he has more !spe-
cially directed his attention, that he is equally versed in all
those departments of intellect in which mankind
have excelled, and that be has directed his at-
tention to the progress which other scientific men
have made, and is as capable of explaining to you the
purposes and results of the researches of others, as he is of
•onfributing a valuable addition to the stock of humanknow-
ledge. (Applause.) It must be peculiarly gratifying to us
that the present meeting should be presided over by so com-
petent a chief, and by one who has so successfully laboured
in that particular science which enables him to interrogate
our mother-earth, and extract from her the knowledge of
what has paned in ages long gone by, and read in her the
traces of former periods of history antecedent to the pre-
sent by hundreds and thousands of years. (Applause.)
ilt isimpossible to set too high a value on those pursuits in
the prosecution of which this meeting is assembled : it is
equally impossible to fix a limit to the progress which the
human mind is destined to make in them. By. the successive
and ruocessful steps which man has made in the various
departments of science, rendering simple and easy that
which was before deemed complex or impracticable, he has
not only greatly contributed to the advantage and conveni-
111130S of the existing generation, but laid the foundation of
the future progress of similar investigations and discoveries.
(Hear, hear.) If any man in the earlier ages of the world
had told those mariners who crept along the coast, never
venturing to loae sight of land, that a discovery would
be made by which man would traverse the trackless
ocean and pursue an unerring course to defined distant
regions, would he not hare been treated as a man who was
indulging in most chimerical imaginings ? And yet that
discovery is now so identified with the capacity of man, that
those who are in the daily habit of using it, if spoken to on
the subject, will find a difficulty in believing that it was not
known and exercised by men of their own calling in all ages.
If a man had ventured to say that the time would come
when the thunderbolts of heaven would be placed in the
hands of armies, he would have been regarded as a person
seeking to trifle with the public credulity. Again,what would
have been said in the earlier ages, tithe people of Europe had
seen told that seeps would to T-so whiih the
thoughts of men could be secured with precision and
rapidity, and even that the description of such a
meeting as this, would, before the dawn of the
next morning, be travelling to every corner of the
empire. What would Warren Hastings and the great Mire
have said, if they had been told that in a few passing years
after the establishment of that magnificent empire in the
Bast, which is now subject to British rule, an invention
would be made which would put it in the power of a Minister
in the House of Commons, when interrogated upon a ques
tints relating to India, to say, " If you will repeat your ques-
tion in half an hour, I shall have an answer from the
Governer-General at Calcutta. (Hear, hear.) And yet I
believe that such a thing is rendered physically possible by
the discoveries of a distinguished man of science of our day.
What would be said by those men who first began to examine
the heavens, if told that the time would come when the useof
great astronomical instruments would enable mankind to ob-
tain' a knowledge of those celestial bodies whose light, as cal-
culated by astronomers, could not reach the earth we inhabit
in a shorter period than thirty million of years. These are
contemplations which overwhelm the power of the human
mind to conceive ; yet anch are the results of human science
—results which we may consider as the first steps only of
that progress which mankind is hereafter destined to make,
and by which the whole world shall no doubt be greatly
benefited. These contemplations and results are not only
useful in conducing to the enjoyment and prosperity
of mankind, hut in producing a salutary effect upon
the human mind. Is it not possible that those who
form an overweening estimate of themselves, and who
era proud of the rank and power they possess, might
be brought to a groper sense of their position, by 'whoa
the utter insignificance of the globe we inhabit, cons
with the mighty regions which the telescope of Lord
unfolds to the eye. On the other hand, may not those vibe
are borne down by misfortune and affliction flat a
source of resignation and patience in those asleedir
mica! phenomena which remind them of the there
period of time they have to suffer in this world,
compared with that eternity to which it is as insignificant
as a grain of sand compared with the earth, or the saga
itself with the mighty world of which it forms so semi •
portion. The study and examination of these sciences tend
moreover to unite nations. (Hear, hear.) They bring to-
gether men of different countries, who arc embarked in
similar pursuits, and engaged in a rivalry the most honour-
able that mankind can engage in ; and I sincerely trust that
the more they are pursued the nearer we shall arrive at that
period, at which mankind will consider that the greatest glory
consists in the advancement of knowledge, and that the most
honourable conquests are those of the secrets of nature.
It is particularly gratifying to us to find ourselves associated
with that brilliant array of foreigners,. whose names my hon.
friend has detailed to yon in his admirable address. I trust
that those illustrious men may go hack to their respective
countries, with their minds more dispoeed, than I am sure
they are even at the preseat moment, to cultivate a feeling
of friendship and regard for the British nation. (Hear,
hear.) I trust that as men who have sailed in the
same vessel, or fought in the same ranks, are attached to
each other for the rest of their lives, so they, finding
themselves here amongst honourable comrades in the pursuit
of that to which they are devoting their lives, will have en-
gendered in their minds those feelings of fellowship and
goodwill which we entertain so strongly towards them.
(Hear, hear.) It is most gratifying, lam sure, to you all,
to perceive that this love of science is confined to no parti-
cular ranks, that from the lowest to the highest it engages
the attention and excites the energies of all classes in this
country ; and that while in every part of the land we hare
institutions established to which the humblest mechanic
devotes his leisure hours in the study of those interest-
ing topics ; we have here, on the other band, the
highest person in the realm, the consort of the Queen,
testifying by his presence the interest he takes in such pur-
suit', and giving to the development of the national mind an
encouragement which cannot fail to be productive of good.
(Hear, hear.) His presence, too, on the present occasion, is
an earnest that he is not an indifferent spectator of the pro-
grmt of science in this country, but that, by devoting, as he
does, his own energetic mind to those pursuits, not as the
business of his life, hut in the enjoyment of his leisure
hours, he will materially aid in the development of those
sciences which are the object of our institutions, and the
ornament as well as the amusement of his life. (Cheers.)
The noble lord concluded by moving a vote of thanks to the
President for the gratifying manner in which he had ex-
plained the objects of the meeting, and also for the ranted
progress he had effected in different branches of science.
(Hear, bear.)
The Marquis of NORTHAMPTON having seconded the
vote, it was unanimously agreed to.
Sir R. J. MURCHISON, in returning thanks, announced
that Prince Albert had not only consented to be present that
evening, but had signified his intention of actively participat-
ing in the pursuits of the Association by attending some of
the sections. (Applause.)
The meeting then, at half-past :en, broke up.