ADDRESS. lix 
to fulfil either of these requirements. On various occasions during the last 
half year I have essayed to fulfil the wishes of my botanical friends, that I 
should either discuss the phenomena of the Vegetable kingdom in their 
relation to collateral sciences, or sketch the rise and progress of Scientific 
Botany during the present century, or a portion of it ; but every such essay 
has been quickly frustrated by the pressure of official duties. Such themes 
require much research, much thought, and, above all, some continuous leisure, 
during which the whole mind may be concentrated on the method of treat- 
ment, as well as on the material to be treated ‘of; and this leisure was 
incompatible with the discharge of my duties as administrator of a large 
public department, entailing a ceaseless correspondence with the Government 
offices, and with Botanical establishments all over the globe. And I do not 
ask your indulgence for myself alone, for there are at this Meeting official 
men of scientific attainments, who have accepted the Presidentships of Sections, 
but who, on leaving their posts to do your bidding, drag a lengthening chain 
of correspondence after them, and sacrifice no short portion of those brief 
holidays which are allowed to public officers. After all, it is deeds, not 
words, that we want from them; and I am prond to find our Sections pre- 
sided over by men who have won their spurs in their respective sciences, and 
who will wear them in the chairs they occupy, and use them, too, if needs 
must. 
For my own part I propose to offer you some remarks upon several matters 
to which the attention of your Committee was directed when at Dundee, and 
then upon some of the great advances that have been made in Botany during 
the last few years; this will infallibly drag me into Darwinism: after which 
I shall allude to some matters connected with that dawning science, the 
Early History of Mankind, a theme which will be a distinguishing collateral 
feature of the Norwich Association. If in all this I disappoint you, it will be 
my solace to hope that I may thereby break the fall of some future President, 
who, like myself, may have the will, but not the time, adequately to meet 
your great expectations. 
Before commencing, however, I must advert to a circumstance which 
cannot but be uppermost in the minds of all habitual attendants at these 
annual gatherings; it is, that but for a severe accident there would have 
been present here to-night the oldest surviving, and indeed the first but two 
of the Presidents of the British Association: my geological friends will 
understand to whom [I allude, as that Rock of Science in whom age and the 
heat and shocks of Scientific Controversy have wrought no metamorphosis, 
and developed no cleavage planes—a man of whom both Norwich and the 
Association are proud—your Canon, our father, Sedgwick. 
My first duty as President is the pleasant one of introducing to you the 
members of the International Congress of Pre-historic Archeology, who, under 
the Presidency of Sir John Lubbock, himself a master of this branch of 
knowledge, open their third session to-morrow in this city. The researches 
which specially occupy the attention of the Congress are perhaps the most 
fascinating that ever engaged the faculties of man; and pursued as they now 
are in a scientific spirit, and in due subjection to scientific methods, they will 
command all the sympathy, and their meetings will receive all the support 
that my fellow members of the British Association can afford to them. And 
there is one way in particular by which we can show our goodwill and give 
our support, so simple that I hope no one will neglect it; and that is that we 
shall all call at their official residence at the Free Library, inscribe our names 
in their books, and obtain cards for their meetings. 
