562 Proceedings. 



Election of Officers for 1878: — President — W. N. Blair, C.E.; Vice- 

 Presidents — Professor Hutton, W. Arthur, C.E.; Council — Professor Sband, 

 G-. JoacLiiti, Prefaseor Macgregor, Professor Scott, D. Petrie, E, Eliott, 

 J. C. Thomson; Hon. Sec. — G. M. Thomson; Hon. Treasurer — H. Skey ; 

 Auditor — A. D. Lubecki. 



The President delivered the following 



ADDRESS. 



It is difficixlt to gather exactly what may te expected from the retiring President of 

 iVLih au institution as the one which I now address. No doubt in the older institutions 

 of other countries, which can boast of containing among their members numbers of 

 individuals eminent for their attainments either in special departments of science or in 

 a wide range of subjects, it is natural to expect that the President will have been selected 

 on account of his ability to deal authoritatively with a particular subject, or to present 

 a review of the latest resides of scientiiic research and to point out their significance. 

 It w'ould be nothing less than presumption in such an one as myself to attempt either of 

 these courses. 



One who is debarred by the ceaseless pressure of other duties from conducting a 

 course of independent enquiry, and who can do little more than skim the pages of a 

 scientific journal amid the inconveniences of a coach journey or the difficulties of a lively 

 railway carriage, though honoured by having been placed in the Presidential chau% can 

 harc'ly on that account venture on so ambitious a flight. 



Nor do I think that any sketchy reference to the subjects brought before the Society 

 during the past year would be likely to be fraught with much either of interest or 

 advantage. A considerable proportion of those ^Dresent this evening heard those papers 

 or lectures when read before the members of the Institution, for though it is true that in 

 the early part of the session, when we first took possession of the new home of the 

 Institute, many were slow to find thek way into it, and the attendance was not so good 

 as when the more centrally situated building was occupied, yet we have now so fully 

 adopted our quarters in these halls of science that the fear is we have been too modest in 

 our calculations of the space which would be required to give accommodation to the 

 members of this Institute. 



One of the considerations which led me to accept the office of President was that I 

 felt that my having been selected for it was in some sort the assertion of a principle. 

 Connecting the circumstance with the discussions which had shortly before prevailed, I 

 did not think it vain or unjustifiable to conclude that, by this action, the members of the 

 Institute generally were willing to have it understood that, whatever their opinions as to 

 questions of detail and modes of operation, they, students of science as they are, 

 acknowledged one great and beneficent First Cause, if I may not go further and believe 

 that it is hereby testified that we have more still in common — viz., that, at least in its 

 broad outlines and all-hallowing principles, the Christian Keligion is held to be entii-ely 

 consistent with all that nature has unfolded. I do not propose to make use of this 

 occasion for the discussion of any of those questions which are held by many to bring the 

 declarations of scripture into conflict with the declarations of the book of nature. Some 

 of them I hold to be questions which ought never to have risen, which at least would 

 never have attained the importance which has been attached to them if mutual respect 

 and forbearance were more generally exercised, if there w«re not on the one hand often- 

 times too strong an assertion of matters as being facts, which after all may be only 



