FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, 1857. 509 



due, not only to the sagacity of the Committee under whose manage- 

 ment it is placed, but also, and eminently, to the zeal and talents 

 of Mr. Welsh, the gentleman who has the immediate charge of the 

 establishment. 



There is but one other topic connected with the administration 

 of the Association to which I feel it necessary to invite your atten- 

 tion before I conclude, I mean the change which has been made 

 in the constitution of one of the Sections, and which will come 

 into operation at the present Meeting. 



By a resolution of your Committee, adopted at the last meet- 

 ing, the scope of the Statistical Section has been enlarged, and 

 it now embraces Economic Science in all its relations. I regard 

 it as a fortunate circumstance for the Association, that this im- 

 portant change will come into operation under the Presidency of 

 the distinguished prelate whose talents have been so long devoted 

 to the advancement of this science, and to whose munificence we 

 owe the formation of a school of Political Economy in the Univer- 

 sity of Dublin, which has already attained a high measure of cele- 

 brity. The Section will have the aid, on this occasion, of more 

 than one of those gentlemen who have filled the Chair of the 

 Whately Professorship, as well as of other members of the Sta- 

 tistical Society of Dublin ; and its proceedings will receive the 

 countenance and support of many foreigners who have devoted 

 themselves to the cultivation of Economic Science. 



Gentlemen, suffer me now to thank you for the indulgent 

 attention with which you have favoured me. I am conscious 

 that the sketch of the recent progress of the Physical Sciences, 

 which I have endeavoured to present, is but a meagre and imper- 

 fect summary of what has been accomplished ; but it is enough, at 

 all events, to prove, that Science is not on the decline, and that 

 its cultivators have not been negligent in their high calling. I 

 now beg, in the name of the local members of this body, to 

 welcome you warmly to this city ; and I pray that your labours 

 here may redound to the glory of God, and to the welfare and 

 happiness of your fellow-men. 



