Triumph of Sciences . 809 
manner to the very eloquent and flattering address of your distin- 
guished chairman. Eloquence, or even accuracy of language, is 
incompatible with strong feeling, and, on an occasion like the 
present, you will give me credit for no small dégree of emotion. 
“¢ [ have been informed, that my labours have been tiseful to 
an important branch of human industry, connected with our arts, 
our manufactures, commerce, and national wealth. To learn 
this from such practical authority, is a high gratification to a 
person whose ardent desire has always been to apply science to 
purposes of utility. It has also been stated that the invention, 
which you are this day so highly honouring, has been subservient 
to the preservation of the lives and persons of a most useful and . 
laborious class of men: this coming from-your own knowledge, 
founded upon such ample experience, affords me a pleasure still 
more exalted—for the highest ambition of my life has been to 
deserve the name of a friend to humanity. To crown all, you 
have as it were embodied these sentiments in a permanent and 
magnificent memorial of your good opinion, [can make only 
imperfect and inadequate efforts to thank you. Under all cir- 
cumstances of my future life, the recollection of this day will ° 
warm my heart; and this noble expression of your kindness wil’. 
awaken my gratitude to the last moment of my existence.” _ 
Mr. Lambton’s speech, and Sir Humphry’s reply, were re- 
ceived with loud acclamations; as was likewise Sir Humphry 
Davy’s health, which Mr. Lambton gave with three times three, 
and introduced in another eloquent speech, still further extolling 
the merits of the lamp, and the disinterested manner in which 
it had been presented to the public. 
Sir H. Davy, in reply, said, that he was overpowered by gra- 
titude, by these reiterated proofs of their approbation—that his 
merits were far overrated—that his success in their cause was 
owing to his following the path of experiment, discovered by 
philosophers who had preceded him—that he would piney 
divide their plaudits with other men of science, and claim muc 
- for the general glory of scientific discovery in a long course of 
ages. He referred to the great increase of wealth and power to 
the country, within the last fifty years, by scientific inventions, 
which could not have existed without coal-mines ;_ the improve- 
ment in the potteries, the steam-engine, and the discovery of 
gas lights. In referring to the steam-engine, he said,‘* What an 
immense impulse has this machine given to arts and manufac- 
tures! how much has it diminished labour, and increased the 
real strength of the country, far beyond a mere increase of popu- 
lation! By giving facilities to a number of other inventions, it 
had even a moral effect in rendering capital necessary for the 
perfection of labour, credit essential to capital, and ingenuity 
and mental energy a secure and dignified species of property. 
Science 
