ADDRESS. XXXm 



their value; to enable our Members to see us in the places which they visited, — 

 wliere all establishments are, with rare exceptions, most liberally thrown open 

 to their inspection, — whatever is most remarliable in the productions of their 

 manufactures, in the principles and construction ot their machinery, in their 

 collections connected with art or the natural sciences, in their public esta- 

 blishments for charity or education, in the moral or physical condition of their 

 inhabitants, or whatever other objects their neighbourhood presents which 

 may interest the antiquary, the geologist, or the lover of picturesque scenery. 

 We may venture to add, likewise, that they were designed for purposes of 

 social as well as of philosophical recreation, — a consideration of no small 

 importance with men whose occupations are frequently monotonous and 

 laborious, and such as require the occasional stimulus of change and variety. 



In accordance with these views, we have visited, in their turn, the most re- 

 markable localities of the three kingdoms, including the universities of En- 

 gland, Scotland and Ireland, the great seats of our manufacturing industry, the 

 great marts of our commerce ; and it is not necessary for me to speak of the 

 success which has marked our progress. The numbers who have attended our 

 Meetings have been always large, and sometimes so great as to embarrass our 

 proceedings from the difficulty of finding adequate rooms to receive them ; 

 the communications which have come under the notice of our several Sections 

 have continued to increase in importance and interest, more particularly since 

 the great cooperative inquiries of our body have come into full operation. 

 We have been enabled, by the application of our funds, to complete some and 

 to forward many scientific enterprises of the highest importance and value, 

 and I see no reason to apprehend that the future Meetings of the British 

 Association will not continue to advance in scientific interest, or cease to 

 exercise a most powerful influence in originating and promoting scientific 

 labours, which will equally tend to promote the interests of knowledge and 

 the honour of the empire. 



The founders of the British Association justly conceived that men of dif- 

 ferent shades of political opinion or religious belief would rejoice in the 

 opportunities which such Meetings would afford them of coming together, as 

 it were, upon neutral ground, where their mutual warfare would, for a season 

 at least, be suspended, and no sounds be heard but those of peace : they felt 

 persuaded that the softening influence of reciprocal intercourse would tend to 

 soothe the bitterness of party strife, and would expose to view points of con- 

 tact and union even between those whom circumstances had most violently 

 estranged from each other, and show them that the features of the monsters 

 of their apprehension were not so repulsive as their imaginations or intole- 

 rance had drawn them. I know that there are some zealots who are ready 

 to denounce the interchange of the commonest charities of life with those 

 whose opinions, however honestly and conscientiously formed, they believe to 

 be unfounded or dangerous. But there is a wide and fundamental distinction 

 between the condemnation of opinions and of the persons who hold them ; 

 and though 1 should be far from advocating that spurious and false liberality 

 which should assume that in the selection of friends, or even in the ordinary 

 intercourse of society, there should be a total suppression of all that is di- 

 stinctive, both of profession and of opinion, yet there are numberless occasions 

 on which we can neither notice them or know of their existence without the 

 violation of all those rules of courtesy and good breeding which the most 

 scrupulous regard for the integrity of our christian profession and for the best 

 interests of mankind would equally teach us to practise and to respect. 



It was with a view of securing this neutral ground as the exclusive basis 

 1844. c 



