THE ANKUAL EXCUBSION. 87 



tunity of manifesting their regard for fellow- workers in the 

 common enterprise of entending the area of human knowledge, 

 and thereby promoting the welfare of our race. (Hear, hear.) 

 On behalf of the officers, members, and associates of the Ply- 

 mouth Institution, he afforded to the members of the Royal 

 Institution of Cornwall a most cordial welcome. Long might 

 his lordship be spared to enjoy the resj)ect and honour which 

 were borne to him on all sides, and continue to take a leading 

 part in whatever tended to the best interests of the people, and 

 long might the Royal Institution of Cornwall, of which the noble 

 earl was the president, continue to advance those researches 

 which in times past had added considerably to the stock of 

 human knowledge, had given an impetus to the love of truth, 

 and deepened the interest of Cornishmen in the history and 

 resources of their own county. (Applause.) 



The Earl of Mount Edgctjmbe, in reply, sincerely thanked the 

 President and members of the Plymouth Institution for their 

 very cordial and hospitable reception of the members of the 

 Institution with which he was at present associated as its presi- 

 dent. The rev. gentleman had remarked that the objects of the 

 two associations were identical, and he believed that to be 

 entirely the fact. Their aims and objects were very similar in 

 their character, and not only so, but he thought he might add 

 that the subjects which formed the topics of consideration in both 

 the institutes, the history of the two counties of Devon and 

 Cornwall, both in their natural features and in their actual his- 

 tory, were also most closely connected ; and he gladly acknow- 

 ledged in the Plymouth Institution and Devon and Cornwall 

 Natural History Society the point of union between the scien- 

 tific and antiquarian researches of Cornwall and those of Devon. 

 (Applause.) He was almost ashamed to confess that this was 

 the first time that he, and probably many of those who 

 accompanied him that evening, had seen the building in which 

 they were now assembled since its museum was perfected. But 

 he was sure they would all share with him the feeling that 

 the arrangements of that museum were wonderfully perfect com- 

 pared with anything of the kind that they had seen there before. 

 (Hear, hear). Apart altogether from the special interest 

 attaching to the contents of the museum itself he thought they 

 could not help being struck with the manner in which those 



