444 Address of the General Secretaries 



spired the Government with confidence ; and while on the 

 one hand science has not hesitated to demand of the country 

 all that was requisite to give completeness to a great design, 

 so on the other, the Government of the country has not hesi- 

 tated to yield, with a liberal and unsparing hand, every re- 

 quest the importance of which was so well guaranteed. 



But while we thus enumerate the benefits which have re- 

 sulted to magnetical science from the delay, it must be also 

 acknowledged that something has been lost also, not to sci- 

 ence, but to British glory. Although terrrestrial magnetism 

 stood forward as the prominent object of the Antarctic expe- 

 dition, yet it was also destined to advance our knowledge of 

 the " physique du globe" in all its branches, and especially in 

 that of geography. Had the project of an Antarctic expedition 

 been acceded to when it was first proposed, viz. at the meet- 

 ing of the British Association, in Dublin, in 1835, there can 

 be no reasonable doubt, that a discovery, which by its extent 

 may almost be designated a Southern Continent, situated in the 

 very region to which its efforts were to have been chiefly di- 

 rected, must have fallen to its lot; and the flag of England 

 been once more the first to wave over an unknown land. But 

 while, as Britons, we mourn over the loss of a prize which 

 it well became Britain and British seamen to have made 

 their own, it is our part too as Britons, as well as men 

 of science, to hail the great discovery one of the very few 

 great geographical discoveries which remained unmade ; and 

 to congratulate those by whom it has been achieved, those 

 whom we are proud to acknowledge as fellow-labourers, and 

 who have proved themselves in this instance our successful 

 rivals in an honourable and generous emulation. 



The caution which has characterized the British Association 

 in the origination of this great undertaking, has been followed 

 up by the Royal Society in the manner in which it has plan- 

 ned the details, and in the vigilant care with which it has 

 watched over the execution. Of the success which has at- 

 tended this portion of the work, the strongest proof has been 

 already given in the unhesitating adoption of the same scheme 

 of observation by many of the continental observers, and in the 

 wide extension which it has already received in other quarters 

 of the globe. All that yet remains is to provide for the speedy 

 publication of the results. The enormous mass of observa- 

 tions which will be gathered in, in the course of three years, 

 by the observatories established under British auspices, and 

 by the Antarctic expedition, will render this part of the task 

 one of great expense and labour. To meet the former, we 

 must again look to the Government, and to the East India 



