35 2 Presidentship of Marquess of Northampton 1848 



parted with the premises in which the Club met and that 

 he was bound by his agreement to give immediate posses- 

 sion to the purchasers. The Club had met as usual on the 

 6th, but could not hold another meeting in the old quarters. 

 After a diligent search it was decided to meet henceforth 

 at the Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen Street, which 

 would still be within a convenient distance from the Royal 

 Society meetings at Somerset House. Two Thursdays were 

 thus lost. The first meeting at the new rooms was held 

 on January 27th. The Club had met without interruption 

 at the " Crown and Anchor " since 2ist December 1780 

 a period of sixty-eight years. 



The present year was the first under the new regulation 

 for the election of Fellows at the Royal Society. The elec- 

 tion was held on June qth. The Club accordingly gave up 

 their meeting on Thursday 8th in order to join the dinner 

 which the general body of Fellows had arranged for the 

 evening of the election-day. On Ascension Day, which was 

 June ist, the Society did not meet, and the Club also took 

 the same course. 



No guests of note were entertained by the Club this year. 

 The only foreigner appears to have been Henry Rogers 

 from Pennsylvania, who was invited by Murchison. He 

 and his brother William were recognised leaders among 

 the geologists of the United States. He was appointed in 

 1857 to ^e the Professor of Natural History at Glasgow 

 University, a position which he filled till his death in 1866. 



The Club records of this year and the years immediately 

 preceding afford another illustration of the absence of any 

 allusion to outside events, even when these were of such a 

 nature as to affect the calm not only of London but of 

 the country at large. All through the long wars with 

 France, as we have seen, the Club transacted its customary 

 business in the same even tenour as during years of undis- 

 turbed peace, and without any reference to the progress 

 of the campaigns by land or sea. We have found too that 

 when a chief part of London was in the hands of the mob 

 during the Gordon riots, the meetings went on with their 



