OPPOSITION 33 



Master of Trinity, if lie 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. Keverting 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 



