■i®4 Annual Report. 



remembered that money is (he instrument and not the object 

 of exchanges, and the possession of it, or of the obligation en- 

 titling to it, merely confers on the holder a deliberative power 

 as to the nature of that exchange which he individually de- 

 sires to encourage or facilitate. The instant, therefore, that 

 the pecuniary obligation betwixt Britain and this country is 

 contracted and ratified, or can be acted on as a certain thing, 

 that instant do the operations of commerce commence, which 

 are to diffuse abroad the resources of the giver and land pro- 

 perty of some kind or other, in a tangible and material shape, 

 upon our shores. Much of that which thus reaches us, may 

 afford only the means of augmented comfort or luxury, and 

 extend the present consumption of the community. We may 

 remark, that where immigration is possible, this effect has some 

 influence on population ; for it is precisely a superiority in the 

 comparative rates of comfort or luxury offered by different 

 countries, which induces men to leave their homes. It may, 

 however, be inferred, that the greater part of the property 

 transferred, will be of that nature which directly facilitates 

 production, or composes the machinery by which national re- 

 sources are more extensively worked, and afford a greater 

 amount of net profits, and by this result it is, that the con- 

 troversy between the theories of Smith, and Ricardo will be 

 determined, if, as is more likely, it do not turn out that they 

 are reconcileable, and merely present different views of the 

 same state of things. 



3. General Physics. 



In consequence of a communication from Mr. Lubbock, the 

 Association adopted the resolution of making a series of ob- 

 servations on the Tides in Table Bay, and a Committee was 

 appointed to consider the proper arrangements for this purpose. 

 From the information received, it does not appear that this 

 would prove expensive, as the machinery requisite is not of a 

 complex character, and the indications would probably be 

 ascertained with considerable ease and correctness from some 

 of the departments whose agents are in constant employment 

 at the landing place. The Association, however, is glad to find 

 that this object has excited the attention of the Astronomer 

 Royal, and that a machine has already been erected in Simon's 

 Bay, and another is preparing for this place, by which the rise 

 and fall, and periods of variation, will be ascertained. 



The objects of interest in this case are, first, the correspon- 

 dence between these oscillations and the movements of the 

 heavenly bodies as to time, and the variations or heights cor- 

 responding to the changes of the sun and moon in position, 

 and the mutual relation which the one of these circumstances 

 may have to the other. These require to be disentangled from 

 ihe effects of local circumstances, which influence both result?. 



