ADDRESS 



BY 



HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE CONSORT. 



Gentlemen of the British Association, 



Your kind invitation to me to undertake the office of your President for the 

 ensuing year could not but startle me on its first announcement. The high 

 position which Science occupies, the vast number of distinguished men who 

 labour in her sacred cause, and whose achievements, while spreading innu- 

 merable benefits, justly attract the admiration of mankind, contrasted 

 strongly in my mind with the consciousness of my own insignificance in this 

 respect. I, a simple admirer, and would-be student of Science, to take the 

 place of the chief and spokesman of the scientific men of the day, assembled 

 in furtherance of their important objects! — the thing appeared to me 

 impossible. Yet, on reflection, I came to the conclusion that, if not as a 

 contributor to, or director of your labours, I might still be useful to you, 

 useful to Science, by accepting your offer. Remembering that this Association 

 is a popular Association, not a secret confraternity of men jealously guarding 

 the mysteries of their profession, but inviting the uninitiated, the public at 

 large, to join them, having as one of its objects to break down those imagi- 

 nary and hurtful barriers which exist between men of science and so-called 

 men of practice— I felt that I could, from the peculiar position in which 

 Providence has placed me in this country, appear as the representative of 

 that large public, which profits by and admires your exertions, but is unable 

 actively to join in them ; that my election was an act of humility on your 

 part, which to reject would have looked like false humility, that is like pride, 

 on mine. But I reflected further, and saw in my acceptance the means, of 

 which necessarily so few are offered to Her Majesty, of testifying to you, 

 through the instrumentality of her husband, that your labours are not un- 

 appreciated by your Sovereign, and that she wishes her people to know this 

 as well as yourselves. Guided by these reflections, my choice was speedily 

 made, for the path of duty lay straight before me. 



If these, however, are the motives which have induced me to accept your 



