256 Address of the President of the British Association. 



promoted by personal intercourse in these re-unions, the benefit of the 

 labors of every such association is national also. None can doubt that 

 the reputation of our country depends far more on its intellectual 

 strength than on its military glory. Without for a moment undervaluing 

 those to whom in past ages as in the present, England is T humanly, in- 

 debted not merely for her empire but for preservation also, 1 cannot 

 doubt that the European reputation of England is owing far more to 

 Newton than to Marlborough. I believe that every new discovery of 

 science which England is permitted to make, while it adds perhaps 

 directly to her wealth or indirectly to the development of her resources, 

 adds also to her influence in the scale of nations. Our government 

 has exercised a prudent and sagacious liberality in adopting thus far 

 the suggestions of this Association for the advancement of science; 

 and it may be well assured that such suggestions, made cautiously and 

 disinterestedly by this Association, will continue to advance the pub- 

 lic interests as well as the mere incidental honor of the body from which 

 they proceed, and which, from past experience, may justly claim the 

 confidence of the state. 



"The interest of our nation in science has kept pace with the en- 

 couragement given by public authority to the cultivation of science. 



"Our national collection may now be compared, not ostentatiously, 

 but thankfully, with those of other countries ; remembering, also, that 

 our collections are little more than half a century old. 



"The ornithological, the eonchological, the mammalian departments 

 in the British Museum are equal, 1 believe, to those of any other capital : 

 greatly owing to the talents and labor of the eminent head of that de- 

 partment, Mr. Gray, whom I see here. The fossil divisions, under the 



:are of my zealous, laborious, and able friend, Mr. Konig, are per- 

 haps superior — in some classes beyond comparison. Last year there 

 was added to the palaeontology of the museum the unique specimens of 

 the Holitherium of Kaup, the Cephalaspis of Lyell, the Lepidote ot 

 Fitton ; and the collection of osteology is, as it ought to be, the first 

 in England. The number of visitors, which six years ago was 319,000, 

 was last year above 700,000— and the collections of comparative anat- 

 omy in the Hunlerian Museum are, as they ought to be, the first in the 

 world. 



" With these indications of the state of science and of the taste for 

 science diffused in our own country — sometimes as the fruit °* l, jj 

 labors of this Association, sometimes as collateral and incidental, an 

 even distinct results, but all showing the progress of physical know • 

 edge or the means of extending or familiarizing it amongst us — I ^8 

 finish my Address. i 



" But I cannot conclude without congratulating the University an 

 the Association alike on this assemblage. , 



" We can never forget that the earliest, and in every sense the n^j 

 of the scientific bodies of England, the Royal Society, derived, as 

 learn from Bishop Sprat, its original and contemporary histor ' 7 a , n k ' nS 

 foundation in this place. We can never forget that Bishop VvilKJ ^j 

 the predecessor of my honored friend the Vice-Chancellor of 0x ,°jts 

 in the government of Wadham College, was the chief promoter ot 

 designs ; that Sir W. Petty, the Wrens, Seth Ward, and Wall*, ^ 

 his associates ; and that here, for fourteen years, our own great a 



