ADDRESS 
BY 
Ture Rev. HUMPHREY LLOYD, D.D., D.C.L., 
F.R.S.L. & E., V.P.R.L.A., FELLow oF Trinity CoLLeGce, DusBLin. 
GENTLEMEN OF THE BrITIsH ASSOCIATION, 
Berore I proceed to the task which devolves upon me this evening, in 
virtue of the position in which your kindness has placed me, suffer me first 
to thank you for the high honour you have conferred. But, highly as I 
esteem the distinction, it was not without hesitation that I accepted it; for no 
one can feel more strongly than I do myself how unfit I am for some of the 
duties connected with it, or how much more adequately they might have 
_ been performed by others. But I knew, at the same time, that it has been 
the desire of your Council, when practicable, to select your President from 
among those local Members who had served in the ranks of the Association 
_ and had shared in its labours; and with such knowledge, and the conscious- 
ness that I had, at least, that humble claim, I felt that I had no right to dis- 
_ pute your choice. 
Ido not know whether I may venture to interpret further your motives, and 
to assign another reason for your selection. Two-and-twenty years have 
elapsed since you visited this city. Upon that occasion my nearest relative 
_ presidéd, and I myself had the honour of serving as one of your local Secre- 
taries. Many concurring circumstances contributed to make that meeting 
an agreeable one; and if your Council has thought fit, on this occasion, to 
‘associate the present with the memories of the past, the motive is, at least, a 
pardonable one. 
_ Gentlemen, this is to me a solemn occasion. Two-and-twenty years are 
no inconsiderable portion even of the longest life; and that man’s moral na- 
ture is not to be envied, who can contemplate the distant past thus vividly 
recalled without emotion. These two decades have brought with thei their 
own large measure of change. The Body in which we are associated has 
