New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-09-02
SCIENCE IN GREAT BRITAIN
THE MEETING AT BELFAST.

| AND HUXLEY PREsENT-PAPERs OF UNUSUAL
INTEREsr-THE PRgsBYTERIANs ASTAGoNisTIc
| TO TYNDAIJ.
| FROM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT or THE TRIBUSE.l
BELFAST, Aug. co. left the British Association
last year at Bradford in the midst Of successful
meeting. find it this year IN Belfast, at the begin
ming of meeting which promises to Guido Bradford
intellectual effort, but is likely to be inferior to
| it in numbers. AS an evidence Of general.
interest in scientific matters, mere numbers aret
valued. But they generally depend on the
place of meeting more than on anything else. The
maximum was reached az long ago as 1865 at New
castle-on-T Tyne, with Sir William Armstrong az
President. This was to beat Manchester which in
| 1861 had 3139; Newcaste-on-Tyne having special
function to do whatever it attempts better and Oh
greater scale than it has been done before Neither
figure has been eqLaled since Liverpool came near
est it, in 1870, under Prof. Huxley's presidency.
when the total was ISIS. AT Edinburgh,
in the year following, the numbers fell
off to 2463 Yet Edinburgh is the most attractive
city in the United Kingdom-the most picturesque,
one of the most cultivated, aud hospitaole also,
Astounding in good hotels and within easy reach OF
some of the most delightful excursions in the world
dislike superlatlves but it is impossible not TO use
good many about Edinburgh OF to omit the one
other great fact of It's possessing great newspaper.
The Scotsman, one of the three most powerful IN
England, out of London. Then came Brighton,
watering-place, which is so accessible as to be called
suburb of London, and last year Bradford. dare
not say anything about Bradford. For what once
wrote last year concerning that energetic town
became the subject of criticism by newspaper pub
lished there, and have hardly yet recovered from
the distress into which fell discovering that my
account of Bradford gave displeasure even TO tho
least of its citizens.
Belfast when it invited the British Association to
come here, was of the most ourishing cities in
the kingdom, tho seat Of the great linen manufac-
ture of Ireland, and Of many other forms OF hopeful
and prosperous energy. To-day, 1T is the seat OF
strike, and of general depression and almost stagna
ton of its chief trade. The latter Is not due to the
strike II there had been strike at all the mills
would have been obliged before this to run on half
time, and though the strike has now lasted SIX
weeks the stocks on hand have scarcely diminished,
and the prlce of yarns and manufactured goods re-
mains nearly what it was. There had been large
over-production and the state of the market was
such that strike looks like an act of suicidal folly
on the part of the operatives. They could not have
chosen worse time In many cases the owners are
only too happy to close their mills. Bankruptcies
and difficulties have occurred, but the true cause OF
them is to be sought further back, and there
might we'll have been more if tue owners had
gone ON paving the f25 900 week in wages when
thew have not had to pay which they have IN iact'
economical since the strike began. Then IL the
masters have suffered from other causes, the met
and their families have suffered greatly from the
strike itself Nobody escapes wholly III such
crisis and over the whole town there Is, say resi-
dents here a kind of gloom and dizziness most uh-
like its usual state. To me it looks busy enough.
II is unlucky that all these troubles should occur az
the time when the British Association comes lho
meeting of the Association is always meant 10 DO
more OF less festival 1t is welcomed prNaueiy
and publicly: but how can hardly-pinched town
find heart for dnner-giying and other hospitainesi
There can be no doubt that the coming OF body OF
strangers at such q moment is untimely, and that
tbe meeting here this year will lack much OF the
holiday character which the meetings OF the BRUSH
Association are wont To have. Belfast Will do its
hest bnt of merry making there will be LITTLE Inc
Association itself issues its usual programme giving
soirees and going on excursions. Iheie VIII ho' po
much beside
All that. happily, is incidental, and not essential.
The real work is of more serious CHARACTER anu
when spoke above of the intellectual work cnt OUT
for this meeting / had in mind three men particu-
larly. who are to take the lead. Two oil them arc
among the foremost men OF science h'ihg' ioi'
Tvndall. who is to preside, and Prof. Huxley VINO
will deliver O discourse next Monday Oh 'he hSPo-
thes;s that Animals are Automata, and its History
The third is Sir John Lubbock, who VIII READ lee
tnre on Common Wild Flowers considered IN reia-
t,on 20 Insects: n topic which Mr.. Ruskin himself
mi aht treat in an nmitable way. The freSlden'S
90 tba seven sections into which the Association
divides itself are all men better known IN the scieh
,;fc than in the general world, with the exception
Of Lord O,Hagan Mr.. Gladstones irish Lord 0hah-
ceor who is to give the opening address IN the Sec
tion of Economic Science. 1hls Is the seeuon wv
which Mr. w. f. Forster presided last year MS
address was one of the things winch gave aistiuc-
,;o, 70 that meeting Lord 0Hagan is very diner
ont tvne of man. and if he likes TO discuss the
,r;le can add something to the hyeinessof Belfast
h native town. But putting all others aside for tho
moment the presence of Prof. huxley anu rioi'
Tvndal and the part they are to take III the meet
ing will be quite enough to make TINS one Vi 'no
most important sessions the British Association las
held for many years. They have held NIUE aioo,
~ late wears from the Association' vi perhaps
slonld say have stood aside for younger nh0n'
mon who have a less brilliant popular laNic' w
T,ndau was selected as President with some REFER
onca n the two facts that Belfast was 10 NC .n'
,,Joco of meeting and that he was an irshmah' Inc
- ,vas one which reflects honor on the Council
- ho .ssociation. not the less because Belfast Is
,ho ho,touorters of Irish Prcsbyterianism. fIoi
T,,rdau has long been the target for a good many
GROWS ont of the Presbyterian and other eccesas-
teal and especially evangelical quivsrs irlsh
Presbyterianism is perhaps more intolerant than any
other form OF that particular faith. The insh are
vehement partisaus naturally, and what the state OK
RELIGIONS feeling is in Ulster, with perpetnally re-
curing pOtco-ecclesiastical conflicts, l need nOS
stop to point out The Belfast ministers are not the
man to let Prof Tyndall come and go IN peace L
aa that the efficacy of prayer, and Of preaching as
we'll is to be tried him this coming SUNDAY pu'