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In thus pleading for the most important of the objects of the 
British Association, I feel that I am not pleading for a cause that 
is hopeless. The change has not only commenced but has made 
considerable progress. Our scientific institutions have already to 
a certain extent become national ones. Apartinents belonging to 
the nation have been liberally granted to them. Royal medals 
have been founded, and large sums fromthe publie purse devoted © 
to the objects which they contemplate. The Museum of Eco= 
homic Geology, indeed, is. itself a complete section of a Royal 
lustitute, giving a scientific position to six eminent philosophers, 
all of whom are distinguished members of this Association. And 
in every branch of* science and literature the liberality of the 
Crown has been extended to numerous individuals whose names 
_ would have been enrolled among the members of a National In- 
‘Stitution. The cause, therefore, is far advanced ; and every act 
of liberality to eminent men, and every grant of money for sci- 
_ Gntific and literary purposes, is a distinct step towards its triumph. 
ee “must be taken up by the minutest capillaries before it can 
‘Hourish and purify society. Knowledge is at once the manna 
knowledge is the antidote. Society may escape from the pesti- ~ 
lence aud may survive the famine; but the demon of Ignorance, 
With its grim adjutants of vice and riot, will pursue her into her 
Most peaceful haunts, destroying our institutions, and converting 
Into a wilderness the paradise of social and domestic life. ‘The 
ate has, therefore, a great duty to perform. As it punishes 
Crime, it is bound to prevent it. As it subjects us to laws, it must 
‘teach us to read them; and while it thus teaches, it must teach 
also the ennobling truths which display the power and the wis- 
Gom of the great Lawgiver,—thus diffusing knowledge while it 
1S extendiag education,—and thus making men contented and 
happy and humble while it makes them quiet and obedient sub- 
jects. It is a great problem yet to be solved, to determine what 
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