Miscellanies. 179 
fortresses of an iron age, of arbitrary power, and although i it is not 
appropriate to this work, we shall still be pardoned i in indulging, the 
wish that this favored abode may long remain sacred to science and 
domestic happiness. 
2. British Association for the Advancement of Science.—The sec~ 
ond meeting of the British Association for the advancement of Sci- 
ence, was held at Oxford, on Monday, the 18th June, and continued 
on the subsequent days of that week. It may be proper to recal to 
the minds of our readers, that the first meéting of this great associa- 
tion took place at York, last year, under the most distinguished pat- 
ronage. ‘The present meeting, held within the venerable walls of 
the University of Oxford, and under the patronage of some of its 
most distinguished ornaments, has been attended with the most bril- 
liant success. 
Monday was occupied with preliminary arrangements, and espe- 
cially the formation of sections and committees, in which the nume- 
rous papers on different branches of science submitted to the associ- 
ation on this occasion, were to be read, and where the votaries of 
- science were collected together to enjoy the advantages of a mu- 
tual interchange of ideas. On the evening of that day, the mem- 
bers of the Association were invited to attend at the Clarendon 
building, for the purpose of scientific conversation. 
At ten o’clock on Tuesday morning, the following committees met 
~ in different apartments of the Clarendon building : 
1. The Committee of Mathematical and Physico-Mathematical 
Sciences. 
2. Of Chemistry, Electricity, Galvanism, Magnetism, and Mine- 
“3. Of Geology and Geography. 
4. Of Natural History ‘including 2 Medicine. “ 
These committees appointed each its own chairman and iscrmtay 
and were employed, between the hours of ten and one, in their res- 
pective departments of science. At one o’clock the various commit- 
tees met in the great theatre. Lord Milton, the president of the 
preceding year, delivered an eloquent address, on resigning his du- 
ties to Dr. Buckland, who, on taking the chair, opened the business 
of the meeting by an appropriate speech. Professor Airey, of Cam- 
bridge, then read his promised report “ on the state and eed of 
astronomical science, in reference particularly to physical -amnogy’ 
. 
