THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 255 



regard to the publications of the Association, in 

 four years, four thick octavo volumes, each contain- 

 ing 700 pages, have been printed and published, not 

 certainly in any splendid form to attract attention 

 from the superficial, but duly attending to the object 

 of obtaining a more general attention to science, by 

 rendering a volume, containing so much matter, 

 cheap to the public, and with a view of disseminating 

 the information it contains, volumes are presented to 

 most of the provincial institutions, like our own, 

 gratuitously. With regard to their contents, I can- 

 not claim an intimate acquaintance with so many 

 learned treatises on various branches of science, but 

 I can venture to assert that no society in Great Bri- 

 tain and Ireland has, in the same space of time, 

 published an equal quantity of Jearned information. 

 I do, therefore, claim for the Association, both in 

 their proceedings and their publications, a strict ad- 

 herence to their original design of giving a strong 

 impulse, and a more systematic direction to scientific 

 enquiry. 



Let us now proceed to inquire, how far another 

 object has been realized, and is likely to be perpetu- 

 ated ; the promotion of the intercourse of those who 

 cultivate science in different parts of the British 

 empire with one another; it is needless to dwell on 

 the success of this portion of the design, at all our 

 meetings we see congregated the philosophers of all 

 the leading towns in the United Kingdom, from 

 Penzance to Aberdeen, and to Belfast, affording 

 such delightful occasions of intercourse and commu- 

 nication as no other institution has provided for its 

 members. For be it remembered, that wealth and 

 science, though we perceive them to be assimilated 

 in some instances, yet do not generally combine, 

 and any metropolitan society would not afford the 

 same opportunity of attending its meetings as an 

 itinerant body affords. Neither w^ould a metropolitan 

 population take the same pains to afford gratuitous 

 accommodation, and cheap places of entertainment, 



