TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 185 
ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. 
Address by the Right Hon. Lord O’Hacan, President of the Section. 
Stnce I accepted the invitation of the Council of the British Association to meet 
pou here, I have glanced through the Addresses of some of the gentlemen who 
ave heretofore enjoyed a similar distinction, and I find, in most of them, an 
authoritative statement, that brevity is held a virtue in the Presidents of its 
Sections. I appreciate the reason of the rule: it has my full approval; and I 
shall endeavour to act upon it, so as to avoid delay of your discussions, or antici- 
ate of their details, or prejudgment of any questions which may probably come 
efore you. 
I ean to have the honour of presiding over such an assembly in a town to 
which I am attached, not merely as the pice of my birth, but, far more, by life- 
long associations of interest, duty, and affection. I rejoice that it is again distin- 
guished by the presence of so many men illustrious in every walk of science, who 
come to take counsel together, as to the conquests of human thought and the 
extension of the bounds of knowledge; and I may be permitted to say that Belfast, 
in its industrial eminence, its honourable traditions, and its intellectual progress, is 
not unworthy to receive them. 
As to its varied industries, they may more fitly be considered by other Sections 
of the Association, in their connexion with those branches of science (such as 
Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, or Mechanics) with which they have more direct 
concern. But the Statistician and Economist, without trespassing on the province 
of any of those branches, has relations with them all—aiming to test the value of 
their results and make them practically conducive to the general well-being. Thus, 
when you note the wonderful progress of this community—increasing in population 
from 37,000 in 1851 to 174,000 in 1871, and possessing multitudes of palatial manu- 
factories where, within my own memory, there was exactly one—you may be led, le- 
eely, to consider its causes, its consequences, and the means of its extension. 
ou may find food for profitable speculation in examining the industrial efforts 
which continue that progress without pause or faltering; and, perhaps, amongst 
them not the ‘least remarkable is that which has established great iron-foundries, 
winning for their work the highest honours in the industrial competitions which 
have occupied the capitals of Murope from time to time for a quarter of a century, 
and commanding orders from the most distant regions of the globe. Or you may 
examine, with equal interest, ship-building establishments which employ skilled 
artisans in thousands, send out scores of great vessels to traverse the Mediterranean 
and bridge over the Atlantic, and have cultivated the special manufacture of lon 
iron-decked ocean-steamers, from the year 1861, when it was first begun, unti 
they have produced the gigantic ‘ Britannic’ and ‘Germanic,’ measured at 5000 
tons (not surpassed, if they have been equalled, in any country), and exhibiting 
improvements which are largely imitated in all ocean-going ships throughout the 
world. But apart from its general industries, Belfast has peculiar claims on the 
good will of this branch of the Association. 
It is nearly a quarter of a century since, at a former Meeting of this Associa- 
tion in this town, the place which I now fill was more fitly occupied by the late 
Archbishop Whately, whose services to Economic Science, as well in his own 
masterly publications as in the liberal energy with which he encouraged the study 
of it in Ireland, I need not eulogize before this assembly. On that occasion there 
were not wanting able and instructed men to show that its principles had already 
found acceptance here. Such men had been already active in the prosecution of 
those special inquiries which in this section it will be our business to pursue. 
In distant days, when Belfast was poor in material wealth and very limited in 
population, they had formed a speculative and literary society which did excellent 
work. They had, also, societies for the culture of natural science, and others 
which were useful in training young people for the encounters of public and pro- 
fessional life, And these, with great schools, which were the creation of the 
spirit and enterprise of private persons, tended to the remarkable advancement of 
individuals, and assisted in laying the foundations of that great hae the 
1874. 
