γ 
ary: 
ADDRESS. XXXIX 
the same class of observations is made, I have no hesitation in speaking in 
the highest terms of the value of Mr. Ronalds’ labours, and in recom- 
mending the institution which he so liberally superintends to the continued 
protection of the Association, and to the continued liberality of the Royal 
Society. 
From the facts which I have already mentioned, and from many others to 
which I might have referred, the members of the Association will observe 
with no common pleasure, that the Government of this country has, during 
the last twenty years, been extending its patronage of science and the 
arts. . That this change was effected by the interference of the British Asso- 
ciation, and by the writings and personal exertions of its members, could, 
were it necessary, be easily proved. But though men of all shades of 
political feeling have applauded the growing wisdom and liberality of the 
state, and though various individuals are entitled to share in the applause, 
yet there is one statesman, alas! too early and too painfully torn from 
the affections of his country, whom the science of England must ever regard 
as its warmest friend and its greatest benefactor. To him we owe new 
institutions for advancing science, and new colleges for extending edu- 
cation; and had Providence permitted him to follow out, in the serene 
evening of life, and in the maturity of his powerful intellect, the views 
which he had cherished amid the distractions of political strife, he would 
have rivalled the Colbert of another age, and would have completed that 
systematic organization of science, and literature, and art, which has been 
the pride and the glory of another land. These are not the words of idle 
eulogy, or the expressions of a groundless expectation. Sir Robert Peel 
had entertained the idea of attaching to the Royal Society a number of ac- 
tive members, who should devote themselves wholly to scientific pursuits ; 
and I had the satisfaction of communicating to him, through a mutual friend, 
- the remarkable fact, that I-had found among the MSS. of Sir Isaac Newton 
a written scheme of improving the Royal Society, precisely similar to that 
which he contemplated. Had this idea been realized, it would have been 
but the first instalment of a debt long due to science and the nation ; and it 
would have fallen to the lot of some more fortunate statesman to achieve 
a glorious name by its complete discharge. 
It has always been one of the leading objects of the British Association, 
and it is now the only one of them which has not been wholly accomplished, 
“to obtain a more general attention to the objects of science, and a removal 
of any disadvantages of a public kind which impedes its progress.” Al- 
though this object is not very definitely expressed, yet Mr. Harcourt, in 
moving its adoption, included under it the revision of the law of patents, and 
the direct national encouragement of science, two subjects to which I shall 
briefly direct your attention. 
In 1831, when the Association commenced its. Jabours, the patent laws 
were a blot on the legislation of Great Britain; and though some of their 
more obnoxious provisions have since that time been modified or removed, 
they are a blot still, less deep in its dye, but equally a stain upon the cha- 
racter of the nation. The protection which is given by statute to every 
other property in literature and the fine arts, is not accorded to property in 
scientific inventions and discoveries. A man of genius completes an inven- 
_ tion, and, after incurring great expense, and spending years of anxiety and 
labour, he is ready to give the benefit of it to the public. Perhaps it is an 
invention to save life—the life boat; to shorten space and lengthen time— 
the railway ; to guide the commerce of the world through the trackless ocean 
