6 PUBLIC LECTURES. 



of Commerce in New York, and the Board of Trade 

 in Philadelphia. The latter promptly appointed a 

 committee with the same objects as those previously 

 appointed by the scientific societies. Still later I 

 spoke to a large audience in the lecture-room of the 

 Lowell Institute, Boston, assembled under the auspices 

 of the committee of the Academy of Arts and Sci- 

 ences, on which occasion, after eloquent addresses by 

 the chairman, the late Hon. Edward Everett, and Pro- 

 fessors Agassiz and W. B. Rogers, a committee of cit- 

 izens was appointed to cooperate with the committees 

 already named. 



The system of public lecturing which had been 

 improved with such satisfactory advantage in the 

 beginning, was continued, and, in addition to the 

 increased public interest which the lectures created, 

 they proved a source of more substantial benefit. 

 Two of them were delivered under the auspices of 

 the American Geographical Society. The value of 

 these last was derived from the circumstance that 

 public support was given to the project by Dr. Francis 

 Lieber, the late Rev. Dr. Bethune, Rev. J. P. Thomp- 

 son, the late Professor (afterward Major-General) 0. M. 

 Mitchel, and Mr. (now Brigadier-General) Egbert L. 

 Viele, who spoke on the occasion. The principal ad- 

 dress was made by Dr. Lieber, and it was characteristic 

 of that able and learned writer. 



The interest manifested among geographers abroad 

 was scarcely less than that shown by scientific men at 

 home. The eminent President of the Geographical 

 Society of London, Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, in 

 announcing the proposed renewal of Arctic discovery 

 bo that distinguished body, expressed the earnest de- 

 sire of the society for the success of the undertaking ; 



