THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 261 



Our evenings were spent in a large circular room, 

 and thence called the Rotunda, capable of containing 

 2,000 people ; the admission here was very indis- 

 criminate, not confined to members; and a very- 

 large proportion of the auditory were ladies, and it 

 had, both at Edinburgh and Dublin, the appearance 

 of a common evening's fashionable exhibition. Some 

 of our leading men delivered lectures, which were 

 invariably found fault with, they were either too 

 profound for such an audience ; or, if popular, then 

 were too trifling, and dull and insipid. This appro- 

 priation of the evenings has undergone much dis- 

 cussion, but it must be admitted, that the majority 

 of our general committee support them, holding with 

 Professor Sedgwick, their great champion, that we 

 must render ourselves acceptable to the general 

 population wherever we resort, and not shut our- 

 selves up with monkish seclusion ; I must own I re- 

 main unconvinced of the truth of these opinions. I 

 prefer infinitely the retiring again to our sectional 

 rooms, where some information is to be acquired ; for 

 I must own that small indeed is the benefit I derive 

 from a lecture, when 2,000 persons are present, when 

 my eyes are assailed with a thousand objects that 

 attract them, and when my ears have the greatest 

 difficulty to hear continuously and effectually. Nei- 

 ther can I regard Sedgwick, Dr. Lardner, or Babbage, 

 with the same degree of veneration that I behold 

 them in the Sectional rooms. In the former they 

 appear to me as panders to a bad system. If ladies 

 must be admitted, they should be seated, as at Ox- 

 ford, in galleries by themselves, none will then come 

 but those who are really anxious for miprovement ; 

 but if they are to be attended, as in ball rooms and 

 theatres, it cannot but tend to diminish the respecta- 

 bility of a scientific body. I am aware I am not 

 speaking the sentiments of the British Association, 

 but, anxious as I am for its permanency and renown, 

 I will not fail to raise my voice against an infringe- 

 ment of the orio:inal desim. Great inconvenience 



