OPPOSITION 33 



Master of Trinity, if he could not welcome the 

 Association, at least to remain passive and ' shut 

 himself up in his lodge/ He alleviated the sting 

 of this onslaught, however, in the remainder of his 

 speech, and Whewell, further persuaded by a long 

 letter from Murchison, allowed himself to be over- 

 ruled, though he held no office during the meeting. 

 Nor did he change his views, for as late as 1862 he 

 commented adversely upon the Association's decision 

 to meet at Newcastle-on-Tyne in the following year. 

 ' I think it is better/ he wrote, ' to go to new places ; 

 Bath and Dundee urged their claims, and I do not 

 like to have the thoughts of men of science turned 

 mainly to war, as is done by making Sir W. Armstrong 

 the President/ But he had by this time recognised 

 the material advantage of meeting in a wealthy 

 centre, for he added, ' The Association wants money, 

 and ought to get it, for it spends a great deal/ And 

 Armstrong's address, it is fair to record, contained 

 but two short paragraphs on gunnery. 



OPPOSITION TO THE ASSOCIATION 



It is not to be supposed that there was no opposi- 

 tion to the establishment of the Association : there 

 was plenty. Reverting for a moment to the first 

 meeting at York, we may note that Murchison thus 

 recalls this attitude, and incidentally gives a rather 

 less favourable view of the meeting itself than that 

 which he conveyed to Whewell : < The project . . . 

 having been transmitted to me in London in the 

 spring of 1831, when I was President of the Geolo- 

 gical Society, I at once eagerly supported it. Nay, 

 more, I wrote and lithographed an appeal to all my 



