FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



very large man with a very large voice, who at the request 

 of the presiding officer, announced in stentorian tones the toasts 

 that were to be drunk, always beginning "My Lords and 

 gentlemen." 



A notable speech was that of Mr. Asquith, then Prime Min- 

 ister of England. It was historical in large part. One sentence 

 which aroused laughter was as follows: "When the universities 

 were engrossed in the din of civil war, 'to the neglect,' as a 

 contemporary writer says, 'of academical studies,' science and 

 philosophy took refuge in the comparative peace and tran- 

 quillity which the streets of the city of London could then 

 afford." Another pleasantry of the Prime Minister's was as 

 follows: "In the same role with John Dryden is one of the chief 

 victims of his satire, George Villiers, Earl of Buckingham, who, 

 amid his various qualifications for the chief office of state, was, 

 as you know, 'chemist, fiddler, statesman and buffoon,' and I 

 see from your records that history tells us that when this, per- 

 haps the most original of the original Fellows of the Royal 

 Society, was committed to the Tower, a special laboratory was 

 fitted up for him in order that he might practise chemistry, 

 and, according to Bishop Burnet, he was very successful in 

 discovering the Philosopher's Stone — an illustration which sug- 

 gests that some people might be more profitably employed at 

 present than in either Westminster or Whitehall." 



Characteristic of the address of the Prime Minister was the 

 frank acknowledgment of the benefits derived by government 

 from the work of men of science. He said very gracefully that 

 the administration of the grants of the Royal Society is not so 

 much a benefit conferred on the Society by the State as a 

 service rendered to the State by the Society. 



The distinguished scholar and eminent politician, Lord Mor- 

 ley, gave a most scholarly and able speech after proposing a 



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