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APPENDIX C 



E. W. BINNEY, F.R.S., F.G.S., &c. 



Our President, whilst this volume was printing, was Edward 

 William Binney. He exercised a great deal of influence in the 

 Society from his strong will and a general tone of common sense 

 in his remarks, as well as from his position as the leading geologist 

 in matters relating to the carboniferous rocks and coal. He was 

 born at Morton, in Nottinghamshire, in 1812, and seems to have 

 lost his father's care early, but a brother came to his help and 

 enabled him to serve his apprenticeship to a solicitor in Chester- 

 field. Afterwards he completed his study in London, and came 

 to Manchester in 1836. It does not appear that he had then any 

 love of geology when he arrived, but he had a belief that by 

 studying questions relating to coal he might be largely employed 

 by coal-owners. He was thus led to the science in which he took 

 the deepest interest, and to the peculiar department of it which 

 he never left. His capacity for long walks gave him a great 

 advantage. He was tall and powerful, and he had no wish to seek 

 society. Indeed, he always spoke in a disparaging manner of 

 the usual social intercourse in the middle and upper ranks, and 

 delighted in rambling over the county and mixing with the men 

 he chanced to meet, studying their ways and learning their obser- 

 vations. It was in this way that he came to take much interest 

 in the scientifically inclined working man, and he had a particular 

 pride in speaking more highly of him than of the more learned 

 or elaborately trained. Indeed, it was his opinion that to be a 



