cvi REPORT—1858. 
French métre, and its subdivisions down to the millimétre, adequate to give 
all the needful data of this kind for comparison of superficial dimensions in 
the varied and extensive range of objects to which my business and pursuits 
have led me to pay attention. Of the hindrances to progress and incon- 
veniences of the ‘foot,’ the ‘inch,’ and its duodecimal parts or lines,—rarely 
the same in any two countries,—I have elsewhere spoken and argued. 
The whole subject of a uniform system of weights, measures, and current 
coin, will occupy the attention of a section of the Association for the Advance- 
ment of Social Science, which will meet at Liverpool shortly after the termi- 
uation of the present Meeting. This is by no means the only point at which the 
Natural and Social Sciences touch and react on each other with mutual 
advantage. The proximity of the periods of the annual assemblage of the 
promoters of these respective sciences, together with the occurrence of both, 
this year, in the North of England, is favourable to the fruition of such 
advantages, by facilitating attendance at both Associations: and in future 
years, the conditions of time and place of meeting, making it easy for a 
Member of the British Association to attend also the Association for Social 
Science, and reciprocally; might, with a view to mutual advantage and 
cooperation, be a subject worthy of the consideration of the respective Coun- 
cils of those Bodies. 
In reference to the relations now subsisting between the State and 
Science, my first duty is to express our grateful sense of such measure of 
aid, cooperation, and countenance as has been allotted to Scientific Bodies, 
Enterprises and Discoveries; more especially to acknowledge how highly we 
prize the sentiments of the Sovereign towards our works and aims, mani- 
fested by spontaneous tribute to successful scientific research, in honourable 
Titles and Royal gifts, and above all, in the gracious expressions accom- 
panying them, with which Her Majesty has been pleased to distinguish some 
of our Body. Happy are we, under the present benignant Reign, to have, 
in the Royal Consort, a Prince endowed with exemplary virtues, and with 
such accomplishments in Science and Art as have enabled His Royal High- 
ness effectually, and on some memorable occasions, in the most important 
degree, to promote the best interests of both. We rejoice, moreover, in the 
prospect of being favoured at a future Meeting by the Presidency of the 
Prince Consort; and that, ere long, this Association may give the oppor- 
tunity for the delivery of another of those ‘ Addresses,’ pregnant with 
deep thought, good sense, and right feeling, which have placed the name 
of Prince Albert high in the esteem of the Intellectual Classes, and have 
engraven it deeply in the hearts of the humblest of Her Majesty’s subjects. 
On the part of the State, sums continue to be voted in aid of the means 
independently possessed by the British Museum and the Royal Society, 
whereby the Natural History Collections in the first are extended, and the 
more direct scientific aims of the latter Institution are advanced. The 
