58 Royal Society. 



discovery of the " Law of Storms," which Col. Reid has recently 

 published, and which promises results so important to the interests 

 of navigation and the cause of humanity. In the science of Mete- 

 orology, which still remains destitute even of approximations to ge- 

 neral laws, it is to a \\ell-organized system of simultan(!ous observa- 

 tions that we must look for tlie acquisition of such a knowledge of 

 tlie range and character of atmospheric influences and changes, as 

 may become the basis of a well-compacted and consistent theory, 

 and rescue this science from the I'eproach, under which it has too 

 long and too justly laboured, of presenting little more than a con- 

 fused mass of almost entirely insulated results. Undertakings, how- 

 ever, of this extensive and laborious nature are far beyond the 

 reach of individual enterprize, and can only be accomplished by 

 national aid and co-operation. 



We have lately •\\itnessed an example where the Storthing, or 

 National Assembly of Norway, a body composed partly of pciasants, 

 and representing one of the jDoorest countries in Europe, undertook 

 the charge of a magnetical expedition to Siberia, on the recom- 

 mendation and under the direction of their distinguished country- 

 man, JM. Hansteen, at the same time that they refused a grant of 

 money to aid in building a palace for their sovereign ; and I feel 

 confident that the united wishes of men of science in tins and 

 other countries, whose influence on public opinion is becoming 

 daily more and more manifest, particularly when expressetl in favour 

 of purely scientific objects which cannot be effected without the as- 

 sistance and the resources of the nation, will not be without their 

 eflcct on the Government of our own country, which has always 

 taken the lead in the promotion of geographical as well as scientific 

 investigations and discoveries, and which possesses, beyond any other 

 nation, advantages for their prosecution and accomplishment, not 

 merely from its superior wealth, but from the range and distribution 

 of its commerce and its colonies in every region of the globe. 



There is one other event to which I wish to advert previously to 

 concluding this portion of my address to you, and Avhich I conceive 

 I may do with the strictest propriety, as it is closely connected with 

 the general interests of the Royal Society. I allude to the return of 

 Sir John Herschel to this country, after an absence of several years, 

 devoted, from a sense of filial duty, to the completion of that great 

 task which he felt to have been transmitted to him as an inhei'itance 

 from his venerable and illustrious father. I have so often had oc- 

 casion to allude, from this Chair, to the merits of that distinguished 

 person, and to express the respect Mhich I felt for his great attain- 

 ments, the pride with which I cherished his friendship, the deep in- 

 terest which I took in his labours, and my admiration of the truly 

 modest and pjiilosophical spirit in which they were conducted, that 

 I should bo guilty of a very superfluous repetition of what I have 

 before addressed to you, if I ventured to enlarge upon them now ; 

 but I should ill discharge my duty, whilst still entitled to address 

 you as the official head of the scientific establishment of this coun- 

 try, if I omitted to avail myself of this or any other opportunity of 



