XXXV1 
by an illustrious and time-honoured university, and fostered by the 
ancient leaders of the people, may we not augur that this Meeting of 
the British Association shall rival the most useful of our previous as- 
semblies, and exhibit undoubted proofs of the increasing prosperity of 
the British Association ? 
Not attempting an analysis of the general advance of science in the 
year that has passed since our meeting at Birmingham, we shall re- 
strict ourselves, on the present occasion, to a brief review of what the 
British Association has directly effected in that interval of time, as re- 
corded in the last published volume of our Transactions, From this 
straight path of our duty we shall only deviate in offering a few gene- 
ral remarks on subjects intimately connected with the well-being and 
dignity of our Institution. 
One of the most important—perhaps the most important service to 
science—which it is the peculiar duty of the Association to confer, is 
that which arises from its relation to the Government,—the right 
which it claims to make known the wants of science, and to demand for 
them that aid which it is beyond the power of any scientific body to 
bestow. In the fulfilment of this important and responsible duty, the 
Association has continued to act upon the principle already laid down 
in the Address of the General Secretaries at the meeting at Newcastle 
in 1838, namely, to seek the aid of Government in no case of doubtful 
or minor importance ; and to seek it only when the resources of indi- 
viduals, or of individual bodies, shall have proved unequal to the de- 
mand. The caution which it has observed in this respect has been 
eminently displayed in the part which it has taken with reference to 
the Antarctic expedition, and to the fixed magnetical observatories. 
It abstained from recommending the former to the Government until 
it had called for, and obtained from Major Sabine, by whom the im- 
portance of such an expedition was first urged, a report in which that 
importance was placed beyond all doubt; and it withheld from urging 
the latter, although its necessity was fully felt by some of its own 
members, until the letter of Baron Humboldt to the Duke of Sussex 
gave authority and force to its recommendation. 
The delay which has in consequence occurred, has been productive 
of signal benefit to each branch of this great twofold undertaking. 
Since the time alluded to, our views of the objects of investigation in 
terrestrial magnetism have been greatly enlarged, at the same time 
that they have become more distinct. Major Sabine’s memoir on the 
Intensity of Terrestrial Magnetism has served to point out the most 
interesting portions of the surface of the globe, as respects the distri- 
