president's address. 1087 



Friday and Christmas Day. So let us as philosophers, but never- 

 theless also as units of humanity (which is the more important) join 

 with the unphilosophic in their unreasonable but natural rejoicings. 

 Yet we must observe that our Society through all the turmoil 

 steers an undeviating course. This meeting is held precisely as 

 if there were no other gatherings to compete with it in atti'action, 

 just as a certain proportion of the necessary oi'der of life must 

 be maintained throughout the gayest festivities of fashion. 



This day one hundred years ago, the first Governor of New 

 South Wales sailed in the Supply from Botany Bay, with a 

 detachment of marines, to occupy ground for the settlement of the 

 infant colony on the shores of Port Jackson, a harbour which had 

 been discovered on the 21st by a boat party, fitted out to explore 

 Broken Bay in the hopes of discovering a more favourable site 

 than could be obtained near Point Sutherland, the Botany Bay 

 rendezvous. On the 21tli the French ex[)loring .ships, Boussole 

 and Asti'olabe, had appeared off the mouth of the Bay, but were 

 unable to enter owing to a strong westerly gale until after the 

 departure of the Supply. Of these ships and their gallant crews 

 no direct news was ever obtained after their departure from our 

 shores, M. de Lesseps bringing the latest intelligence to Europe 

 by way of Kamschatka. 



This coincidence in arrival of French and English ships u])on 

 an almost unknown spot at the antipodes of European civili- 

 sation is a singular introduction to our brief but extraordinary 

 history. 



The point however to which I would draw your special attention 

 for one moment is the extraordinary courage or audacity whicn led 

 the British Government to establish this outpost at the Antipodes. 

 The whole western coast of America was Spanish. The Aleutian 

 Islands, Kamschatka and Okhotsk, were Russian. Japan, China, 

 and Austral India were hardly counted as units under the solid- 

 arity of nations. The Philippines belonged to Spain ; Java and 

 Ceylon to the ISTetherlands. The Indian trade was under a vexa- 

 tious monopoly, against which the merchants of Sydney contended 



