306 GEOLOGICAL REFORM x 



for the British geologists (some of them very 

 popular geologists too) here in solemn annual 

 session assembled, to inquire whether the severe 

 judgment thus passed upon them by so high an 

 authority as Sir William Thomson is one to which 

 they must plead guilty sans phrase, or whether 

 they are prepared to say &quot; not guilty,&quot; and appeal 

 for a reversal of the sentence to that higher 

 court of educated scientific opinion to which we 

 are all amenable. 



As your attorney-general for the time being, 

 I thought I could not do better than get up the 

 case with a view of advising you. It is true that 

 the charges brought forward by the other side 

 involve the consideration of matters quite foreign 

 to the pursuits with which I am ordinarily occu 

 pied ; but, in that respect, I am only in the 

 position which is, nine times out of ten, occupied 

 by counsel, who nevertheless contrive to gain 

 their causes, mainly by force of mother- wit and 

 common-sense, aided by some training in other 

 intellectual exercises. 



Nerved by such precedents, I proceed to put 

 my pleading before you. 



And the first question with which I propose to 

 deal is, What is it to which Sir W. Thomson 

 refers when he speaks of &quot; geological speculation &quot; 

 and &quot; British popular geology &quot; ? 



I find three, more or less contradictory, systems 

 of geological thought, each of which might fairly 



