xhii REPORT—1852. 
field for the practical applications of science, our satisfaction in assembling 
here would be complete, were it not clouded by the absence of one friend 
who would have been among the foremost to have welcomed us to this 
meeting which he prepared, the Naturalist of Ireland, whose memory will 
long be honoured and cherished by the members of the British Association. 
The ever-increasing activity of the various branches of science embraced 
by the British Association is such, as to render it scarcely possible to com- 
prehend within the limits of an address of the usual length, even a brief 
review of the progress made in the seven departments which constitute our 
Sections. In the selection which I have thus found myself compelled to make, 
I have been guided by a practical principle, which appears not unsuited to 
an Association in which the Presidency is an annual office, viz. that the 
President for the year should notice by preference those subjects with which 
he is most familiar, in which the Association as a body have taken a part, or 
which are likely to be discussed at the meeting over which he presides. 
Among the subjects which are likely to come before the Mathematical and 
Physical Section, there is none perhaps of greater importance, or requiring 
more careful consideration, than the question whether the time is arrived, 
when the establishment of an Observatory in the Southern Hemisphere, fur- 
nished with instruments of suitable optical power for the examination of the 
Nebule of the southern heavens, and devoted exclusively to that branch of 
sidereal astronomy, should be again brought under the consideration of Her 
Majesty’s Ministers. I need not occupy your time by restating on this 
occasion the reasons both of scientific and national concernment, which in- 
duced the two principal Scientific Institutions of the United Kingdom, con- 
jointly, to recommend to those entrusted with the administration of public 
affairs, the formation of an establishment of this description in some fitting 
part of Her Majesty’s southern dominions. I would rather refer you to the 
memorial presented to Government by the Earl of Rosse on the part of the 
Royal Society, and by Dr. Robinson on the part of the British Association, 
not only because it contains such a complete and formal exposition, as may 
be most advantageously consulted by those who will now be called upon to 
take part in the reconsideration of the subject, but also because it appears to 
me to furnish an admirable model both in spirit and in matter, for communi- 
cations designed to fulfil the important purpose of conveying in an official 
form the opinions and suggestions which the united body of scientific men 
of this Kingdom may desire from time to time to bring under the considera- 
tion of the Executive. 
In the discussions which took place at a former period, the only difficulty ~ 
which appeared to be apprehended in reference to the successful working of 
such an establishment, arose from a doubt whether mirrors of the required 
magnitude could be repolished, as they would frequently need to be, on the 
spot. This difficulty has now it is understood been entirely removed by the 
improvements which the noble Earl, the President of the Royal Society, to 

