PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, B.A., 1871. 133 



" friends and promoters of the British Association. 

 " They went to York to assist in its establishment, 

 " and they found there the very men who were 

 '' qualified to foster and organise it. The Rev. 

 " Mr. Vernon Harcourt, whose name cannot be 

 " mentioned here without gratitude, had provided 

 " laws for its government, and, along with Mr. 

 " Phillips, the oldest and most valuable of our 

 " office-bearers, had made all those arrangements 

 " by which its success was insured. Headed by 

 " Sir Roderick Murchison, one of the very earliest 

 " and most active advocates of the Association, 

 " there assembled at York about two hundred of 

 " the friends of science." 



The statement I have read contains no allusion 

 to the real origin of the British Association. This 

 blank in my predecessor's historical sketch I am 

 able to fill in from words written by himself 

 twenty years earlier. Through the kindness of 

 Professor Phillips I am enabled to read to you 

 part of a letter to him at York, written by David 

 Brewster from Allerly by Melrose, on the 23rd of 

 February, 1831 : 



