4 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



far from complete, and Britain's public men and manufacturers 

 do not seem yet to have learned that on it depends their own 

 progress and that of their country. Even here, however, much 

 improvement is manifest, and we may hope that, in the course of 

 another generation or so, the Advancement of Science in this 

 sense will be complete enough to put Britain on level terms with 

 its rivals. 



For more than half a century the national sentiment implied 

 in its name did not lead the British Association beyond the confines 

 of Great Britain and Ireland, its annual meetings being held in 

 turn in the leading cities there. But it was inevitable that, sooner 

 or later, a broader view should be taken of its self-imposed 

 responsibilities ; for is not the modern growth of the British 

 Empire beyond the seas itself the outcome and the very embodi- 

 ment of the Advancement of Science ? If the Empire holds 

 together as a great living organism, with parts mutually dependent 

 and working in healthy unison, what are its nerves but electric 

 cables ? And what maintains its circulation but that triumph of 

 mechanical engineering — the modern ocean steamship ? The 

 growth of the Imperial sentiment, as we know it now, the feeling 

 that Britain no longer consists of the little mother country with 

 distant and scattered dependencies, but is one great united nation, 

 dwelling where duty calls it — these are in fact the outcome of the 

 growth of Science rather than of Politics. And so it came about 

 that the British Association ceased to interpret its name in the 

 old-fashioned narrower sense, and adopted the view that Britain 

 is where the British race is settled. Its first excursion overseas 

 is memorable — the meeting in Montreal in 1884 under the presi- 

 dency of Lord Rayleigh. Since then it has twice again visited 

 Canada, holding meetings at Toronto in 1897 and Winnipeg in 

 1909. In 1905 the Association delinitely confirmed its acceptance 

 of Imperial responsibilities by holding its annual meeting in South 

 Africa ; and here a departure was made from established custom, 

 for the meeting was not confined to one centre, but visited different 

 cities in turn. 



I have spoken already of the earliest attempt to bring about 

 a visit of the British Association to this southern home of the 

 British people — Australia. The proposal was discussed again 

 some years later, and again was found impracticable. In 1909, 

 however, it was mooted once more in Melbourne ; and the matter 

 was then brought under the notice of this, our own, Association, 

 of the Universities and scientihc societies of Australia, and of the 



