244 SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON'S ADDRESS. [May 23, 1859, 



chronicle of the progress of each person through life, but simply 

 dwell on those circumstances which connect that individual with 

 our geogi-aphical pursuits, accompanied by a very brief sketch of 

 his public character. 



In alluding to public men, I naturally first notice the career of 

 the patriotic and accomplished nobleman, our first President, the 

 Earl of Eipon, who, having reached his seventy-seventh year, died 

 in January last. Entering into public life in 1804, and into Par- 

 liament in 1806, Lord Eipon was connected by official duties with 

 the successive Governments of the Duke of Portland, Lord Liver- 

 pool, Lord Castlereagh, and Mr. Canning, and on the death of the 

 last of these statesmen was, when Yiscount Goderich, for a brief 

 space the Premier. Subsequently he joined the Ministry of Earl 

 Grey, and was Secretary for the Colonies at the time when, at the 

 request of some of the founders of this Society, he became our first 

 President. During the period of his Presidency he never failed to 

 take a lively interest in our welfare ; but feeling that the duties 

 attached to an important office in the State were incompatible with 

 a due attendance to our concerns, he relinquished the office into the 

 hands of his friend Sir John Barrow, who had, in fact, taken an 

 active part in inducing his Lordship to become our leader. 



Though the late Lord Eipon retired from office in 1834, yet on 

 the return of Sir Eobert Peel in 1841 he undertook first the Presi- 

 dency of the Board of Trade, and afterwards that of the Board of 

 Control, which last place he held until the dissolution of Peel's 

 Government in 1846, when he retired from public life. 



In this last official post Lord Eipon showed an anxious desire to 

 promote, by every means in his power, the advancement of scientific 

 and useful researches in the interior of India, as I can testify ; for 

 upon my representing to him the great advantage which would 

 accrue from selecting by preference those medical students who had 

 received a good scientific education for Indian service, he willingly 

 nominated as an assistant-surgeon the son of my venerated friend 

 Dr. John Fleming the celebrated Scottish naturalist, and Dr. Andrew 

 Fleming has since well requited his Lordship's aid by arduous geo-^ 

 logical and other researches. 



Though it is not within my province to trace the public life of 

 the late Lord Eipon, still it is very gratifying to me to be able 

 to say that he was invariably and intimately connected with all 

 the liberal parliamentary measures which were passed during his 

 official career. Thus, whether we turn to the long debates which 



