British Association. 407 



questionable lion of the day. Talking of lions reminds us that 

 the Red Lions have had their annual feed ; this lime under the 

 presidency of Prof. Huxley. There have been excursions num. 

 berless ; the students of Geology riding chiefly to Shotover ; the 

 lovers of Art chiefly to Blenheim. The Duke of Marlborough 

 has paid the members of the British Association the delicate com- 

 pliment of throwing open his noble grounds and galleries at the 

 hours most convenient for their visits, and in cases where proper 

 applications have been made, of allowing the treasures of his pri- 

 vate apartments to be inspected in the most liberal manner. Hun- 

 dreds have accepted His Grace's generous invitation to Blenheim 

 where the grounds are in perfect beauty, and the glorious Rafi'a- 

 elles, Rubens', and Van Dycks have recently been arranged and 

 noted by the accomplished hand of Mr. Scharf. 



Yet the main interest of the week has unquestionably centred 

 in the Sections, w^here the intellectual activities have sometimes 

 breathed over the courtesies of life like a sou'-wester, cresting the 

 . waves of conversation with white and brilliant foam. The flash, 

 and play, and colli^iious in these Sections have been as interesting 

 and amusino^ to the audiences as the Battle at Farnborouoh 

 or the Volunteer Review to the general British public. The 

 Bishop of Oxford has been famous in these intellectual contests, 

 but Dr. Whewell, Lord Talbot de Malahide, Prof. Sedgwick, Mr. 

 Crawford, and Prof. Huxley have each found foemen worthy of 

 their steel, and made their charges and countercharges very much 

 to their own satisfaction and the delight of their respective friends. 

 The chief cause of contention has been the new theory of the 

 Development of Species by Natural selection — a theory open — like 

 the Zoological Gardens (from a particular cage in which it draws so 

 many laughable illustrations) — to a good deal of personal quizzing, 

 "without, however, seriously crippling the usefulness of the physi- 

 ological investigations on which it rests. The Bishop of Oxford 

 came out strongly against a theory which holds it possible that 

 man may be descended from an ape, — in which protest he is sus- 

 tained by Prof. Owen, Sir Benjamin Brodie, Dr. Daubeny, and 

 the most eminent naturalists assembled at Oxford. But others 

 conspicuous among these. Prof. Huxley — have expressed their 

 willingness to accept, for themselves, as well as for their friends 

 and enemies, all actual truths, even the last humiliating truth of 

 a pedigree not registered in the Herald's College. The dispute 

 has at least made Oxford uncommonly lively during the week. 



