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



of prosperity. In addition to the efforts of geographers, including 

 eminent astronomers and physical philosophers, as well as ardent 

 explorers of distant lands, this Association also flourishes through 

 the good will and hearty support of statesmen, members of both 

 Houses of Parliament, officers of the army and navy, residents in 

 our colonies, , and the merchant-traders of this great metropolis. 

 All these, as well as many proprietors and professional gentlemen, 

 take a deep interest in our progress, because they see and feel 

 that in the diffusion of fresh knowledge, and in grappling with 

 questions of physical geograph}'-, natural history, and the produc- 

 tions of distant countries, we are continually advancing the material 

 interests of the nation. 



It is for such reasons that the Secretaries of the Foreign and 

 Colonial Departments, as well as the Board of Admiralty, never fail 

 to supply us with materials which sustain the interest and character 

 of our evening meetings. 



Considering that a larger number of votaries attend these 

 assemblies than those of any other scientific Society, the only 

 drawback which seems to weigh upon us at the present moment 

 is the difficulty of obtaining a meeting-room capacious enough to 

 receive our great numbers. For the last two years the Council of 

 the Royal Society and the Senate of the University of London have 

 kindly permitted us to hold our meetings in the great hall at 

 Burlington House ; but if that room and all the beautiful adjacent 

 buildings are to be removed in order to give place to colossal 

 edifices, in which the cultivators of art and science are to have 

 their meeting-places, galleries, and museums, let us confidently 

 hope that a Society so useful and so popular as our own will 

 receive some share of the patronage of the Government. 



Let my associates be assured that their President has been 

 quite awake on a subject so important to their interests. Ample 

 care has been taken that the Council should not lose a moment in 

 memorializing the Government and in strongly urging our ji;ist 

 claims ; but up to the present time no assurance has been obtained 

 that we shall be provided with apartments on the site of Burlington 

 House, and thus be affiliated, as I ardently wished, with the Eoyal, 

 Chemical, Linnean, and Geological Societies.* 



* In issuing this Address I hare the satisfaction to announce that the President and 

 Council of the Royal Society have, on my application, consented to continue to the Royal 

 Geographical Society the use of the Great Hall in Burlington House for the meetings of 

 the ensuing Session. — July 15. 



