74 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



exist, and proLably will be found in some quarters wliere they liave 

 not as yet been discovered. There seems to be every prospect of 

 cements being more extensively used in the future than they have 

 been in the past, and it is for the benefit of our buildings, no less 

 than for that of the industry itself, that a cheap local supply 

 should become abundant. 



As for pottery clays, Belleek affords ample testimony of the 

 presence of suitable materials, and the capabilities of native talent. 

 Why that particular industry has not yet proved commercially 

 successful I cannot say — it has certainly deserved to be so. 



I shall not further encroach now upon these subjects, which 

 belong to the forthcoming reports, and will, no doubt, be discussed 

 in them. Nor shall I enter upon any discussion as to the political 

 questions which influence, in a superlative degree, the develop- 

 ment of this country's industrial resources. 



No fact is more generally acknowledged than that capital is 

 sensitive. Each possessor of it illustrates this truth by the manner 

 in which he makes his investments. He may make mistakes, and 

 he may send his capital to countries of which he knows nothing 

 whatever, but he does not ordinarily invest his property in a 

 country while he knows it to be in a condition of unrest. 



Circumstances, it is to be hoped, will bring about a condition 

 of rest and renewed confidence here, and, in the meantime, we 

 purpose preparing information on the above subjects, which will 

 serve to indicate directions in which capital, when available, may 

 be invested with the best prospect of future profit. 



A question has informally arisen among some of the Members 

 in reference to the circumstances under which we at present hold 

 our meetings, whether we should not be in a better position as 

 regards the accession of new and active interest of old Members, if 

 we had a more distinct local habitation, with our own library and 

 so forth. But this question was, to the best of my belief, fully 

 decided some years ago by circumstances which, while the Society 

 regretted, it could not control. There are, probably, few younger 

 Members of the Society than myself here present, and so I will not 

 say more on a subject of which most of you know more than I do. 

 But this may be said as regards the present, we don't know how 

 far our orbit of revolution as an independent body is from its com- 

 pletion. Fifty-one and a-half years ago we started on our career 



