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

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY

embarked, which cannot fill to stimulate our best exerlons
for the future, in a cause in which the glory of the country
and the prosperity of every person in it, from her Majesty
herself down to the lowest of her subjects, is involved. In
the second plat,, I may be permitted to congratulate myself
in Oa* baying to address you in the town of Southampton,
thaklown which is closely associated with my earliest
recellections, and brings to my mind the remini-
scences of younger days. (Loud cheers.) Returning
to it after the lapis of years I now see (as I must in every
other grad town) a great and important change—a start
forward in commerce, and a great development of its re-
sources ; and facts have been stated to me which lead me to
believe that it is now in progress of resuming that position
in the maritime history of the country which it ones occu-
pied. It is already one of the great links of communication
between England and her distant Indian e.npire.
Not one of the least important advantages of this society
is that it brings us in constant contact with that
great phenomenon, the immensity Of our national progress.
Go where you will the activity now prevailing in the onward
progress sf England is impressed upon us, and every year
we find it placed more and more under the guidance of that
science which it is our office and design to promote and advance
and to which the meetings of this society in various parts of
the country have greatly contributed. Aud firmly believing
as I do that the resources of science are inexhaustible, I look
forward to the future with nothing of foreboding, but wi.h
that hope which is free from all feelings of self-aggrandize-
ment. As to the business ofrbe society during the past year
the report of the council has placed before you a statement
so luminous and complete, that I need not dilate upon it.
Still, I must offer a few words of congratulation on the pro-
sperity of our observatories in foreign countries. In all our
applications to the government of this country—to the Bad
India Company, and to foreign governments, we have
been met in the most cordial and liberal spirit.
(Hear, hear.) Nothing that we have asked for has
been refused, and all we could wish in the way of assistance
has been granted. In this respect, I believe, my successor
will have to say still more to you. The learned professor
having referred to a report received from a foreign member,
in reference to magnetic and meteorological observations,
and to the recent astronomical discoveries, said be had done
his best to reflect some part of the light which the accident
of his position and the good company he had been
cast among rather than any knowledge of his own bad placed
him in possession of. The real onus of the business of the
British Society fell upon the secretaries, and to those gentle-
men he owed his best thanks for the kindness and advice
which he had received from them on all occasions. His'
successor, Sir It. J. Murchison, had almost, from the com-
mencement of the Association, occupied the office of one of
it: general secretaries, and when they conrilered the zeal
and activity he had displayed, and the great pains he bad
taken to advance the objects of the society, they must admit
that he was eminently fitted for the position he was
now called upon to fill. But it was not merely for services
of that nature that he had been called to the presidency of
the Association. He did not inter.d, in Sir it. Murchisou's
presence, to enlarge on his personal character, that was too
well known to the Society to need any testimony of his ; hut
he could wish he were more cognizant than he was of that
useful and important department of science which Sir It.
Murchison had so well illustrated ; for if he were competent
for such a task, he should not feel disposed to spare his
friend's modesty on that occasion : but he might appeal to
every geologist—to a Burkland, a Home, a D. la Beche, and
others to speak of the value of Sir It. Murchison's services in
that branch of science. He would not longer detain the
meeting from the pleasure of hearing their new Pre4dent
address them from his chair.

Sir John Herschel then retired from the chair, which was
taken by
Sir R. MURCHISON, who, in a few moments rose, and
after complimenting the late President fur his distinguished
abilities and efficient services, addressed the association as
follows :

LADIOI AND Geyrt.►wr_y.—After 15 years of migration to SWIMS
cities and towns in the United Kingdom, you are fur the first time
assembled in the South-Eastern dish-tits of tlligland. at the solicita-
tion of the authorities and inhabitants of Southampton. Easily
accessible on all sides to the cultivators of science, thin beautiful and
flourishing sea-part is situated in a district so richly adorned by
nature, so full of objects for scientific contemplation, that, supported
as we are by new friends in England, and by old friends from the
farthest regions of Europe, we shall indeed be wanting to ourselves,
if our proceedings on this occasion should not sustain the high
character which the British Association Las hitherto maintained.

For my own part, though deeply cumulous of my inferiority to my
eminent prelecesaor in the higher branches of science, I still venture
to hope that the devotion I have manifested to this Astoeiation from
its origin to the present day, may be viewed by you as a guarantor
for the zealous execution of my duties. Permit me then, gentlemen,
to offer you my warmest acknowledgments for having placed me in
this honourable position : and to assure you, that I value the appro..
hation which it implies as the highest honour which could have been
beatowed on me—an honour the more esteemed from its being con-
ferred in a county endeared to me by family connexions, and in which
Irece to have made my first essay as a geologist.
'forigin,jprogrese and objects of this our " Parliament of Science^
have been so thoroughly explained on former occasions by your sue-
r:mire Presidents, particularly in reference to that portion of our
body which cultivates the mathematical, chemical and mechanical
aciencee, that after briefly alluding I. some of the chief results of by-
gone years, with a view of bnprereing upon our new member. the
general advances we have made, I shall in this discourse dwell more
particularly on the recent progress and present state of natural his-
tory, the department of knowledge with which my own pursuits have
been mist connected, whilst 1 shall also Incidentally advert to wine of
the proceedings which are likely to occupy our attention during this
meeting.
No sooner, gentlemen, had this amociation fully established Its
character as a legitimate representative of the science of the United
Kingdom, and by the reports which It had published, the researches
which it had instituted, and the other substantial eerviece which it had
rendered to ecienee, had secured public respect, than it proceeded
towards the fulfilment of the lust of the great objects which a Brew-
ster and a Harcourt contemplated at its foundation, by inviting the
attention of the government to important national points of scientific
interest. At the fourth meeting held in Edinburgh, the Association
memorialised the govi foment to increase the forces of the Ordnance
Geographical Survey of Britain, and to eaten.' speedily to Scotland
the benefits which hail been already applied by that ialminabk estab-
lishment to the south of Eagland, Wales and Ireland. From that
time to the present it has not united to call the notice of the Minis-
ters; of the day to every great scientific measure which armed,
after due consideration, likely to promote the interests or raise the
character of the British nation. Guided In the choke of theme appli-
cations by a committee selected (ruin among its members, It has
sedulously avoided the presentation of any request which did not rest
on a rational heals, end our rulers, far from resisting such appeals,
have uniformly and cordially acquiesced in them. Thus it won when,
after paying large rums from our own funds for the reduction of
large mass," of astronomical observations, we represented to the
government the necessity of enabling the Astronomer Royal to
perform the same work on the observations of his predecessors,
which had socumu.ed in the archives of Greenwich, our ap-
peal was answered by arrangements for completing so im-
portant a public object at the public expense. Thus it was
when contemplating the vast accesaion to pure ecienoo as well as to
useful maritime knowledge, to be gained by the exploration of the
South Pular regions, that we give the first impulse to that project of
the great Antartie expedition, which, supported by the influence of the
Royal Society and its noble I:reirident, obtained the full assent of the
government, and led to results which, through the merits of Sir
James Item and his companions, have shed a bright lustre on our
country, by copieus additions to geography and natural history, and
by affording numerous data for the development of the Laws that regu-
late the ma,netiam of the earth.
The mention of terrestrial magnetism brings with It a crowd
of recollections creditable to the British Amociation from
the perspicuous manner in which every portion of fresh
knowledge on this important subject has been stored up in
our Pt./Wind, with a view to generialeation, by Colonel Sabine and
others; whilst a wide field for its diffusion and combination has
been secured by the congresa held at our bast meeting, at which some
of the most distinguished foreign and British magneticians were anion-
bled under the presidency of Sir John Ilerschell.
It is indeed most .ti-rectory for us to know, that not only did all
the recommendations of the Association on this subject which were
presented to our government meet with a most favourable reception,
but that in conacquenee of the representations made by tier Majesty's
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the public authmitice of other
countries which had previously taken part in the system of co-opera-
live observation, the governments of Kumla, Austria, Prussia, and
Belgium have notified their intention of continuing their respective
mimetic:al and meteorological observations for another term of three
years.
In passing by other instances in which public liberality has been
directed to channels of knowledge which required opening out, I
must not omit to notice the grant obtained from our gracious
Sovereign, of the Boyd Obeerratory at Kew, which, previously dia-
-1 mantled of its astronomical instruments, has been converted by us
into a station for observations purely physical, and especially foe
these details of atmospheric phenomena which are so minute and
nunterouri and require such unremitting attention, that they Imperi-
ously call fur separate eritabliahmenta. In realising this principle, we
cum now refer british and foreign philosophers to the otnarriatory of
the British Amomation at Kew, where I have the authority of
mom adequate judges for saying they will find that a great
amount of electrical and meteorological observation has been
made, and • systematic inquiry into the intricate subject of
atmospheric electricity carried out, by Mr. Ronald:a, under the
suggestions of Professor Wheatstone, to which no higher praise
can be given than that it has, in fact, furnished the model of the
proems," conducted at the Koval Observatory of Greenwich. Thin
establishment is besides so useful through the (wiliees which It offers
for researches into the working of self-registering instruments which
are there constructed, that I earnestly hope it may be sustained as
heretofore by aenual grants from our fonds, partandarly as It Is
accomplishing considerablereoults at very small cost.
Our volume fur the List year contains several communications on
physical subjects from eminent foreign cultivators of science, whom
we have the pleasure of reckoning amongst our corresponding mem-
bers, and whose communications, according to the image of the As-
; aoeintion, have been printed entire amongst the reports. In a
discus:don of the peculiarities by which the great cornet of 1843 was
distinguished, Dr. Von lioguslawsli of Breslau has taken the occasion
to announce the probability, resting on calculations which will be pub.
nailed in Schumacher's " Astremonrisehe Naeltrichten," of the Wen-
, City of thin cornet with several of a similar remarkable charach r
recorded in history, commencing with the one described by Aristotle,
which appeared in the year 371 before our era; should his calculations
be considered to establish this fact, Dr. Von. Boguslawaid proposes
that the comet should hereafter be dietinguiahed be the name of
" Aristotle's Comet: The communication contains also some highly
Ingenious and Immintanatignsiderations relating to the physical causes
of the plannomens 'Moneta.
}Jr. Tag Zama et *Om of the adventurous geographical
aglow and agraillika via imp ef the active members of the
=We* coop= git munoniested through his ono
some interesting angsdnasnla w Ile introdinsmle effect, of the
friction of conducting enbeinalen, endhie pihrhed eat the differences
between these and normal Onrino.slas OWL Baron Von

.gre'n-ften-berst(;rho Is an admirellemmumin Whew mash may be done
by a liberal Leal for science combined with an independent fortune)
has published an amount of the seleella with whkde self-registering
meteorological inetramate bow been established at hie observatory
at Seutenberg, ea veil seal Its astiestal observatory at Prague.
Of our own members, Mr. Hirt hes contributed a second report on
atmospheric waves, in continued= of the investigation which origi-
nated m the discussion by Sir Jan Llerschell, of the mete°
observations which, at his sospetion, were made in various =f
the globe, at the periods cid* elvisoxes and solstices, etormosslag
with the year 1834.
In a communication tees usstlag of the Association at Task,
Colonel Sabine traced with area lIIIMEMB (from the heady deer-
vations at Toronto) the alba of the single diurnal as ink
annual progressions of temperature, in producing on the sisal vs-
pours and gaseous elements of the atmosphere, the welLknown giro-
pessions of daily and yearly barometrical pressure. To the con-'
elusions which he then presaged, and which apply, perhaps gams.
rally, to situations not greatly leaned in the interior of huge Mets
of land, the came author has oiled. in the last volume, sordnable
explanation of the more maindseled phenomena which lappet at
pouts where Lind and as brimem. lowing with tiiwidv. medify
periodically and locally the andliagoa sod istessere et Ise
sphere. Taking toe his asks lhsimbhoorly ot.westiors ~End a
the Observatory of Bendny hyDr. Sisk Oslossi Shim.- sossesgell
In demonstrating tee Ills bole* f deable deaf orebreselest
games* pressure, in aerie milk theism =I swami of the sir
fromsurfaces dland bed miter tied* ore tostaily, sista by best.
And thus the diurnal minim et the dolly presume eta Oat within
the trogites, and on the mega of the sea, is
_entiled b 1 the fan
reason which was seurnied by fade asneed la the interior of the
vast continent of North Amides.
Among the many meth! Adana' objects whiehhstsbemlroaoted