PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, B.A., 1871. 135 



" for advancing its interests and accelerating its 

 " progress." 



Of the little band of four pilgrims from Scotland 

 to York, not one now survives. Of the seven first 

 Associates one more has gone over to the majority 

 since the Association last met. Vernon Harcourt 

 is no longer with us ; but his influence remains ; 

 a beneficent and surely therefore never dying 

 influence. He was a Geologist and Chemist, a 

 large-hearted lover of science, and an unwearied 

 worker for its advancement. Brewster was the 

 founder of the British Association ; Vernon 

 Harcourt was its law-giver. His code remains 

 to this day the law of the Association. 



On the eleventh of May last Sir John Herschel 

 died in the eightieth year of his age. The name 

 of Herschel is a household word throughout Great 

 Britain and Ireland yes, and through the whole 

 civilised world. We of this generation have, from 

 our lessons of childhood upwards, learned to see in 

 Herschel, father and son, a. presidium et dulce dccus 

 of the precious treasure of British scientific fame. 

 When geography, astronomy, and the use of the 



