The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-05 00:00:00

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

MANCHESTER, WEDNESDAY EVENING.

The 31st annual meeting of the Association com-
menced here to-day. The attendance is likely to be
more than usnally numerous, and the arrangements
appear to have been made with careful regard for
the personal convenience and the entertainment of
members and visitors, as well as for the satisfactory
conduct of business.

The great inaugural meeting took place in the
Free Trade Hall at eight o'clock. The magnificent
hall, which was tastefully draped with scarlet cloth
and ornamented by paintings, drawings, and other
works of art, was long before that hour filled by a
distinguished company. Many ladies were present,
and gave brilliancy to the assemblage. Among
those present on the platform we observed the
Bishop of Manchester, Lord Stanley, M,P., Earl of
Enniskillen, Dr. Daubeny, Professor Sedgwick,
General Portlock, Professor Owen, Sir J. Richard-
son, Professor Jukes, Mr. Napier, Mr. Headland,
Mr. Bazley, M.P., M.P., Mr. Turner, MY.,
Pro-
fessor Wheatstone, General Sabine, Captain Galton,
Sir E. Belcher, Professor Chevallier, Sir Philip
Egerton, Colonel Sykes, M.P., and Professor
linpffer,
At a few minutes after eight Lord Wrottesley,
the retiring President, took the chair amid loud
cheers. He said,—
Ladies and Gentlemen,—ln retiring from the office I
have had the honour to hold it is a great pleasure to me to
know that I am to be succeeded by one who is so well
worthy of your support. (Cheers.) We may derive im-
portant instruction from the career of Mr. Fairbaim—
(cheers)—whether we view him as the successful engineer,
or as the distinguished man of science. (Cheers.) In the
former capacity he is one who has by perseverance combined
with talent risen from small beginnings to the summit of
his profession, and he forms one of that noble class of
men, the Stephensons, the Brunels, the Whitworths, the
Armstrong; which have conferred such important services
on-their country—(cheers)—and some of whom, unfortu-
nately for that ceuntry, have perished, alas, too soon, ex-
hausted by their arduous toils. (Cheers.) Mr. Fairbairn,
therefore, is one of many examples of what can be done in
England by such men, who resolve, undaunted by the dif•
fieulties and obstructions that beset their path, to struggle
gallantly onward till success crown their efforts. (Cheers.)
Again, if we look at Mr. Fairbairn's claims to scientific
distinction, they read to US an important lesson ; for they
show what can be done by zeal and energy, and the exer-
cise of a strong and resolute will, fully determined to carry
out objects in which the public is deeply interested. It is
extraordinary that any man should have been able during
the few leisure hours that can be snatched from an impor-
tant and engrossing business, to accomplish for science
what Mr. Fairbairn has done—(cheers); and not only has
he been a most successful contribttor to mechanical science,
but his liberality has been unbounded in placing all his
great mechanical resources at the disposal of his fellow-
labourers in the same field. (Cheers.) Well and truly
was it said when the royal medal was conferred on Mr.
Fairbairn for his researches—" Perhaps there is scarcely a
single individual living who has made so many careful ex-
perimental inquiries on subjects of primary importance to
the commercial and manufacturing interests of the country,
and has so liberally contributed them to the world."
(Cheers.) Such a man is one whom all should delight to
honour. And to such a man I resign with great satisfac-
tion the chair which I now vacate." (Cheers.)
_ _ _

Mr. FAIRBAIRN then took the chair amid loud cheers.
He spoke as fellows :

" Gentlemen of the British Association,—Ever since
my election to the high office I now occupy I have been
deeply sensible of my own unfitness for a post of so much
distinction and responsibility ; -and when I call to mind
the illustrious men who have preceded me in this
chair, and see around me so many persons much better
qualified for the office than myself, I feel the novelty
of my position and unfeigned embarrassment in addressing
you. I should, however, very imperfectly discharge the
duties which devolve upon me as the successor of the diss
tinguished nobleman who presided over the meetings of last
year if I neglected to thank you for the honourable position
in which you have placed me, and to express at the outset
my gratitude to those valued friends with whom I have
been united for many years in the labours of the section of
this association, and from whom I have invariably received
every mark of esteem. A careful perusal of the history of
this association will demonstrate that it was the first, and
for a long time the only institution, which brought together
for a common object the learned Professors of our Univer •
sities and the workers in practical science. These periodical
reunions have been of incalculable benefit in giving to prac
tice that soundness of principle and certainty of progressive
improvement which can only be obtained by the accurate
:study of science and its application to the arts. On the
other hand, the men of actual practice have reciprocated
the benefits thus received from theory, in testing by actual
experiment deductions which were doubtful, and rectifying
those which were erroneous. Guided by an extended ex-
perience, and exercising a sound and disciplined judgment,
they have often corrected theories apparently accurate, but
nevertheless founded on incomplete data or of false
assumptions inadvertently introduced. If the British
Association had effected nothing more than the removal on
the anomalous separation of theory and practice it would
have gained imperishable renown in the benefit thus con-
ferred. Were Ito enlarge on the relation of the achieve-
ments of science to the comforts and enjoyments of man, I
should have to refer to the present epoch as one of the
most important in the history of the world. At no former
period did science contribute so much to the uses of life and
the wants of society. And in doing this it has only been
fulfilling that mission which Bacon, the great father of
modern science, appointed for it, when he wrote that the
legitimate goal of the sciences is the endowment of human
life with new inventions and riches,' and when he sought
for a mutual philosophy which, not spending its energy on
barren disquisitions, ' should be operative for the benefit
and endowment of mankind.' Looking, then, to the fact
that, while in our time all the sciences have yielded this
fruit, engineering science, with which I have been most in-
timately connected, has pre-eminently advanced the power,
the wealth, and the comforts of mankind, I shall probably
best discharge the duties of the office I have the honour to
fill by stating as briefly as possible the more recent scientific
discoveries which have so influenced the relations of social
life. I shall, therefore, not dwell so much on the progress
of abstract science, important as that is, but shall rather
ens leavour briefly to examine the application of science to
the useful arts, and the results which have followed, and are
likely to follow, in the improvement of the condition of so-
ciety. The history of man throughout the gradations and
changes which heundergoes in advancing from a primitive
barbarism to a state of civilization shows that he has been
chiefly stimulated to the cultivation of science and the de-
velopment of his inventive powers by the urgent necessity
of prov iding for his wants and securing his safety. There
is no nation, however barbarous, which does not inherit the
germs o.f civilization, and there is scarcely any which has not
done SOT nothing towards applying the rudiments of science
to the purposes of dailylife. Among the South Sea Islanders
when discovered by Cook, the applied sciences,—if I may
use the tersn,—were not entirely unknown. They had ob-
served something of the motions of the heavenly bodies,
and watched with interest their revolutions, in order to
apply this knowledge to the division of time. They were
not entirely deficient in the construction of instruments of
husbandry, of war, and of music. They had made them-
selves acquainted with the rudiments of shipbuilding and
navigation in the construction and management of their
canoes. Cut off from the influence of European civili-
zation and deprived of intercourse with higher grades ,
of mind, we still find the inherent principle of progres-
sion exhibiting itself, and the inventive and reasoning
powers developed in the attempt to secure the means
of subsistence. Again, if we compare rr an as he exists
in small communities with his condition where any
numbers are congregated together, we find that densely
populated countries are the most prolific in inventions and
advance most rapidly in science. Because the wants of the
many are greater than those of the few there is a more vigo-
rous struggle against the natural limitations of supply, a
more careful husbanding of resources, and there are more
minds at work. This fact is strikingly exemplified in the
history of Mexico and Peru, and its atussssa:on is found in
the numerous monuments of the past which are kidcn in
Central America, where the remains of cities and temples,
and vast public works, erected by a people endowed with
high intellectual acquirements, can still be traced. There
have been discovered a system of canals for irrigatios ; long
mining galleries cut in the solid rock in search of lend, tin,
and copper; Pvramh.ls not unlike those of Egypt; eat then-
ware vases and
cups, and manuscripts containing the re-
cords of their history; all testifying to so high a degree of
scientific culture and practical skill that, looking at the
cruelties which atteaded the conquests of Cortes and Pi-
zarro, we may well hesitate as to which had the stronger
claims on our sympathy, the victors or the vanquished. In
attempting to notice those branches of science with which
lam but imperfectly acquainted, I shall have to claim your
indulgence. This association, asp you are aware, dues net
confine its discussions and investigations to any particular
science ; and one great advantage of this is, that it leads to
the division of labour, while the athention each department
receives, and the harmony with whi oh the plan has hitherto
worked, afford the best guarantee of its wisdom and proof
of its success. In the early history of astronomy, how
Vague and unsatisfactory were the wild theories and con-
jectures which supplied the place oft lemonstrated physical
truths and carefully observeu' laws How immeasurably
small, what a very speck doe s man appear, with all the
works
and how
wonders et MR invention, when contrasted with the mighty
of the Creator • imperfect is our apprehen-
s!on, even iv. _
highest flights .of poetic imagination, of
the boundless aopthal -s• t
pace These reflections na u-
radly suggest themselves in
of' an Almighty Power, asuitheie:,s— pressmtemplation of the works
roverential awe of the great Aatb.
or of
the mind
our e
x
i d with a
istence. The
great revolution which laid the ft, neon of modern as-
tronomy, and which, indeed marl ne the birth of modern
ph; ysical science, is chiefly due Ao three or four distill-