THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 



BY 



H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES, E.G., D.C.L., F.R.S.. 



President of the Association. 



Ladies and Gentlemen, 



My first duty, as President of our great Association, must be to read to 

 you the following message from His Majesty The King : — 



I am sensible of the distinction conferred upon my dear son, The 

 Prince of Wales, in presiding at this year's meeting of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science ; for I realise that no 

 Member of my Family has occupied this position since my grandfather 

 was President in 1859. I cannot do better than repeat the assurances 

 then made by the Prince Consort on behalf of Queen Victoria, and 

 express my deep appreciation of the all-important and ceaseless labours 

 in the cause of Science of those eminent men who enjoy the Member- 

 ship of your world-renowned Society. 



I propose on behalf of the Association to forward the following reply 

 to this message : — 



The members of the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science assembled at Oxford humbly beg to express to Your Majesty 

 their loyal appreciation of the patronage extended to the Association 

 by your Father and Yourself, and of Your Majesties' repeated expres- 

 sions of personal interest in its work. 



The Advancement of Science is the constant object of the British 

 Association ; to give a stronger impulse and more systematic direction 

 to scientific inquiry, to promote the intercourse of those who cultivate 

 science in different parts of the British Empire with one another and 

 with foreign philosophers, to obtain a greater degree of national atten- 

 tion to the objects of science, by removing those disadvantages which 

 impede its progress, for the well-being of Your Majesty's realm and the 

 general good of mankind. 



My second duty is to try and tell you — if this be possible — something 



which you do not know already. I must admit frankly that, for a long time, 



the prospect of attempting this has weighed on me heavily. For a man who, 



along with the great majority of his fellow-creatures, can lay claim to no 



intensive scientific training, it is no light responsibility to be called on to 

 1926 B 



