ADDRESS. XXXlil 
_ Bard and Druid of ancient Britain, summoned us to the shores of the- Bristol 
Channel. 
_ When I acknowledge, however, that there are abundant reasons why the 
Association should sooner or later visit Swansea, I have not therefore said 
that that visit ought to have taken place this year. On the contrary, there 
_ is one reason why it would have been better had it been postponed to a later 
period. In that case it would probably have had a more efficient President 
than myself. Wholly unconnected as I am with this place, I cannot think 
that I should have been called on to preside had I not still continued to hold 
the high and honourable office in the Royal Society which I am about in a 
few months to resign. 
Indeed my present position in the Royal Society is the only reason that 
could justify me in accepting the invitation,—and I must candidly say that I 
think it sufficient. I can conceive nothing more important to both societies, 
in some of their chief functions, than a close union of feeling, and when occa- 
sion calls for it a union of action also. Thus their influence is enabled to 
bear with greater weight on the Government of their own country,—and in 
one instance at least, it has done so, through their own, on the Governments 
of other countries also. 
It has been the habit of my predecessors in this chair, on occasions similar 
to the present one, to advocate the claims of the British Association on the 
goodwill of their countrymen, and to state the services that it has performed 
to the cause of knowledge. They have pointed not only to the papers read 
and discussions held in our different Sections, but also to the Reports drawn 
_ up with the greatest care by men of the highest abilities and eminence during 
our vacation. They have indicated the important scientific investigations 
and experiments carried on at our request and at our expense, and which 
would not have so soon, if at all, been carried on had the British Asso- 
 Ciation not existed. They have summoned as witnesses in favour of the 
Association the band of illustrious foreigners who have joined our ranks, and, 
making themselves Englishmen for the time, have given us the honour of 
their presence, the assistance of their science and the pleasure of their friend- 
ship. Finally, my predecessors have been able proudly to advert to the ser- 
vices performed by our Government at the request of the Association, backed 
on several occasions by the Royal Society. They have had it in their power, 
for instance, to advert to the reduction of catalogues of stars, to the cession 
of the Royal Observatory at Kew, to the expedition of Sir James Ross, and to 
the great combination for inquiries on terrestrial magnetism. This has been 
the sort of argument, overwhelming as it seems to me, that my predecessors 
| were at first called to adopt. I cannot think that more than this slight allu- 
1848, d 
