xvi REPORT—1857. 
Association to which I feel it necessary to invite your attention before I con- 
clude,—I mean the change which has been made in the constitution of one 
of the Sections, and which will come into operation at the present Meeting. 
By a resolution of your Committee, adopted at the last Meeting, the scope 
of the “ Statistical Section” has been enlarged, and it now embraces Econo- 
mic Science in all its relations. I regard it as a fortunate circumstance for 
the Association, that this important change will come into operation under 
the Presidency of the distinguished prelate, whose talents have been so long 
devoted to the advancement of this science, and to whose munificence we 
owe the formation of a shool of Political Economy in the University of 
Dublin, which has already attained a high measure of celebrity. The 
Section will have the aid, on this occasion, of more than one of those gentlemen 
who have filled the Chair of the Whately Professorship, as well as of other 
members of the Statistical Society of Dublin; and its proceedings will receive 
the countenance and support of many foreigners who have devoted them- 
selves to the cultivation of Economic Science. 
Gentlemen, suffer me now to thank you for the indulgent attention with 
which you have favoured me. I am conscious that the sketch of the recent 
progress of the Physical Sciences, which I have endeavoured to present, is 
but a meagre and imperfect summary of what has been accomplished; but 
it is enough, at all events, to prove that Science is not on the decline, and 
that its cultivators have not been negligent in their high calling. I now beg, 
in the name of the Local Members of this body, to weleome you warmly to 
this city; and I pray that your labours here may redound to the glory of 
God, and to the welfare and happiness of your fellow-men. 
