The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-06 00:00:00

rum SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 6, 1E65.

I,—This Day.

Meeting of the British Association.

BIRMINGHAM, Sept. 4.
The 85th annual meeting of the British Association for
the Advancement of Science commences here to-morrow,
and promises to be as successful as any of its preceding
yearly gatherings. The principal hotels are filled with
visitors, but of a different class from those who are ordi-
narily attracted here by the numerous trades and occupa-
tions of Birmingham. Already you see in the neighbourhood
of the Exchange, in New-street, and in the other leading
thoroughfares, groups of members of the association, whose
style and air of repose mark them out from the busy crowd
around. At this beautiful season of the year Birmingham
is by no means the first place to which a tourist, seeking
health or recreation, would direct his steps. Still, though
the town cannot boast of being picturesque, nor of having
often an unclouded sky, it occupies, in a sanitary point of
view, a much more favourable position than many other
places more attractive to the eye or possessing a more un-
adulterated atmosphere. Besides, much has been done of
late years to improve the external appearance of this great
centre of the hardware trade. A taste for architecture has
sprung up, and extends not only to the public buildings of
recent erection, but also to the new shops, many of which
may now almost bear favourable comparison with the best
in Regent-street or Oxford-street in the metropolis, and
what is scarcely less important, the atmosphere is much
less impregnated with smoke than it used to be. This
desirable result can hardly be attributed to diminution in
the number of mills and factories, as the town was never
more prosperous or busier ; still less is it probable
that the manufacturers have, out of regard for
the lungs and noses of the philosophers who are now in-
vading the borough, put out or toned down their. furnaces.
The more likely solution of the matter is, that in London
the principle of the smoke-consuming apparatus is now
generally introduced in all the great factories and work-
shops in the town.
The association has taken possession of the assembly
room of the Exchange, and converted it into a reception
room, or rather made it the headquarters of the institution
for the forthcoming week. Here a post-office has been
improvised, with every accommodation for conducting epis-
tolary correspondence, and here is to be found a numerous
staff of civil and polite officials prepared to give informa-
tion about lodgings, excursions, railway passes, the busi-
ness of the sections, and every conceivable subject relating
to the proceedings of the association or the comfort of the
members. The number of tickets-issued up till to-day is
very large, and of these no less than 250 have been taken
by ladies.
The president at this meeting of the association is Pro-
fessor Phillips, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., and the Pro-
fessor of Geology in the University of Oxford.
The objects of the British Association, the prospectus
states, are to give a stronger impulse and more systematic
direction to scientific inquiry ; to promote the intercourse
of those who cultivate science in different parts of the
British empire with one another, and with foreign philo-
sophers; to obtain more general attention for the objects
of science, and the removal of any disadvantages of a pub-
lic kind which impede its progress.
To-morrow morning the general commttee will hold its
first meeting in the Lecture Theatre, Midland Institute,
for the election of sectional officers and the despatch of the
business usually brought before that body. It is expected
that this meeting will be enlivened by a discussion upon
the claims put forward by the Anthropological Society to
a special section. By the existing arrangements they are
confined to the geogaphical and ethnological section; but
for sometime past they have been urgent for a section to
be entirely set apart for anthropology. In antici-
pation of the renewal of •the claim for a separate
section, a cheap work by Mr. Hunt, the president
of the Anthropological Society of London, on the
meaning of the words "anthropology," "ethnography,''
and " ethnology," has been extensively advertised in the
town, and will doubtless prove a welcome aid to some of
the Birmingham folks in their effort to understand the
merits of the forthcoming discussion. The first general
meeting will be held in the Town-hall to-morrow evening,
when Sir a Lyell, Bart., will formally resign the chair,
and Professor Phillips will assume the presidency and de-
liver the introductory address, which is looked forward to
with great interest. On the following day (Thursday),
and also on Friday, Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday, the
different sections will meet from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. On
Thursday there will be a soirée at the Town-hall, at which

scientific instruments, interesting articles of manufacture
and of mechanism and geological specimens, will be exhi-
bited ; and on Friday evening, Mr. J. Beete Jukes, local
director of the geological survey of Ireland, will deliver a
discourse on the probabilities as to the position and extent
of the coal measures beneath the red rocks of the Midland

counties. There will be another soirée on Monday, Sept.
11, at the rooms of the Society of Arts, which will accom-
modate 600 people ; and a third one at the Town-hall on
the following day, when microscopes and photographs will
be exhibited. The mayor will also, on Monday next, en-
tertain a party of guests at luncheon in the Town-hall.

On the same day the general committee will decide upon
the place of meeting in 1866. The concluding general
meeting will take place on Wednesday, the 13th inst. An
elaborate plan for excursions to places or interest in this
and the adjoining counties has just been completed, and,
if the weather continues fine, members will very generally
avail themselves of it. On Saturday there aro to be

excursions to Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon, -to
Coventry and Kenilworth, to Worcester and Malvern,
to Wroxeter, Shrewsbury, Wenlock, the Wrekin,
and Coalbrook-dale. On Thursday, the 14th, the
excursions will be to the Dudley Caverns, the South
Staffordshire Coalfield and Ironworks, and Cannock Chase,
and also to Lichfield and the Burton Breweries. In addition

--
to these attractions, all the public buildings, museums, and
institutions in Birmingham have been thrown open to the
Members of the association ; whilst a list of about 60 of

he principal manufactures for which the town and neigh-

bourhood are celebrated, to which visitors, on presenting
their association ticket, will be admitted, has been issued

by the managing committee.

MARKETS—This Day.

MARK-LANE.

The supply of English wheat on sale at Mark-lane to-
day was moderate. It was mostly composed of new pro-
duce, which being for the most part in very middling con-
dition, sold heavily, at 36s to 48s per quarter. For old
wheats the trade was in a sluggish state, at Monday's
decline.

There was a fair supply of foreign wheat on sale. The
demand for all descriptions ruled heavy, and the quota-
tions were is to 2s per quarter beneath the late highest
point.

Floating cargoes of wheat sold slowly, at Monday's
rates. Spring corn afloat was firm in price.
The market was scantily supplied with barley, in which
sales progressed slowly, at late rates.
The trade for malt was firm at full currencies.

Oats were in fair supply and steady request at quite
previous rates.

Beans and peas, the supplies of which were limited,
moved off slowly at late prices.

There was a fair demand for flour at previous quota-
tions.

ARRIVALS THIS WEEK.

Wheat. Barley. Malt. Oats. Flour.
English and Scotch. 990 50 860 90 150
Irish
Foreign 12,090 5,580

- 21,130

sks.
brls.

COMPARATIVE QUANTITIES AND PRICES OF GRAIN. -
For the week ending Sept. For the corresponding week
2, 1865. last year.
Qrs. Aver. Qrs. Aver.
Wheat 51,742-46 s 7d Wheat 38,574-42s 5d
8ar1ey......... 2,234-31 s 2d Barley 1,657-29s 1d
Oata