i860.] BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 321 



redoubled fury over a paper by Dr. Draper of New York, 

 on the ' Intellectual development of Europe considered with 

 reference to the views of Mr. Darwin.' 



The following account is from an eye-witness of the scene. 



" The excitement was tremendous. The Lecture-room, in 

 which it had been arranged that the discussion should be held, 

 proved far too small for the audience, and the meeting ad- 

 journed to the Library of the Museum, which was crammed 

 to suffocation long before the champions entered the lists. 

 The numbers were estimated at from 700 to 1000. Had it 

 been term-time, or had the general public been admitted, it 

 w r ould have been impossible to have accommodated the rush to 

 hear the oratory of the bold Bishop. Professor Henslow, the 

 President of Section D, occupied the chair, and wisely an- 

 nounced in limine that none who had not valid arguments to 

 bring forward on one side or the other, would be allowed to 

 address the meeting : a caution that proved necessary, for no 

 fewer than four combatants had their utterances burked by 

 him, because of their indulgence in vague declamation. 



"The Bishop was up to time, and spoke for full half-an- 

 hour with inimitable spirit, emptiness and unfairness. It was 

 evident from his handling of the subject that he had been 

 * crammed ' up to the throat, and that he knew nothing at first 

 hand ; in fact, he used no argument not to be found in his 

 ' Quarterly ' article. He ridiculed Darwin badly, and Huxley 

 savagely, but all in such dulcet tones, so persuasive a manner, 

 and in such well-turned periods, that I who had been inclined 

 to blame the President for allowing a discussion that could 

 serve no scientific purpose, now forgave him from the bottom 

 of my heart. Unfortunately the Bishop, hurried along on the 

 current of his own eloquence, so far forgot himself as to push 

 his attempted advantage to the verge of personality in a tell- 

 ing passage in which he turned round and addressed Huxley : 

 I forget the precise words, and quote from Lyell. ' The 

 Bishop asked whether Huxley was related by his grand- 



VOL. II. Y 



