
ADDRESS 
BY 
THE EARL OF ROSSE, 

GENTLEMEN,—I am sure no one can feel more sensible of the kindness of 
my noble friend, in condescending to notice my very humble exertions in the 
cause of astronomical science, and no one more conscious that the compliment 
so flattering is undeserved, and, I must say, that I should be but too happy were 
it now in my power to resign into his abler hands those duties which have 
just devolved upon me; for in that case I am sure the Association would 
have nothing to desire. But as that is impossible, and as it has been of late 
the practice for those who have occupied the position in which I find myself 
most undeservedly placed, to offer a few observations on the objects of the 
Association at the first General Meeting, I feel I have no other course but 
to solicit most earnestly your kind indulgence. Such a request you would 
not perhaps cgnsider unreasonable from any one who laboured under the 
embarrassment necessarily arising from the consciousness of his own inability 
adequately to discharge the duties entrusted to him, augmented, as it must be, 
tenfold, by that awe which it is impossible not to feel in the presence of men 
the most distinguished in the varied departments of human knowledge. But 
perhaps, in this instance, your kindness will allow there is an additional claim 
to your indulgence. This very embarrassing position is not of my own 
seeking. To have aspired to the high honour of presiding at one of your 
meetings, would have been an act of presumptuous vanity, which I never did, 
which I never could have contemplated. A communication from Manches- 
ter, announcing that the Association had actually made their selection, was 
the first intimation which reached me that my name had even been thought 
of. Under such circumstances, to have declined the honour, and to have 
shrunk from the responsibility, would, in my opinion, have been inconsistent 
with proper respect: it remained, therefore, but to endeavour to do the ut- 
most, trusting that your kindness would overlook all omissions, and that the 
vigilance of the many most able men who guide the proceedings of the 
Association would detect and correct all important errors. But, however 
arduous the task, however painful the duty of addressing a meeting so con- 
stituted as this is, it is impossible not to participate in the gratification which 
all must feel in seeing so many men of eminence assembled to assist each 
other in promoting objects of such deep and general interest. The man of 
the world who, busied in the changing scenes of life, watches with fixed at- 
tention the actions of men, while he occasionally perhaps casts a passing glance 
at science as it happens to present to him some new wonder—he cannot fail 
to look with surprise, and, I may add, with gratification, at a meeting so 
large (and in this country too), from which politics are altogether excluded. 
Here he will see no angry conflict of passions, none of that feeling of bitter- 
ness and animosity, which never fails to attend the contests between man 
and man, between different classes in the same country, or between different 
