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President, and in the year following became President of the 

 Institute. His researches have extended to almost every part 

 of the globe ; but as a Frenchman he has not failed in his duty 

 to his own country, having constructed a Geological Map of 

 France. He has also devoted much of his attention to the 

 phenomena of volcanic action. The estimation in which his abi- 

 lities as a scientific man are held is so high, that whenever the 

 French Government has had occasion to issue instructions to 

 persons engaged in voyages of discovery, M. Elie de Beau- 

 mont has been constantly requested to draw them up. The 

 career of M. Regnault has been different. He was elected 

 a Member of the Institute in the department of Chemistry, 

 and has specially distinguished himself by his researches with 

 respect to specific heats, the dilatation, the elastic force, the 

 density and compressibility of gases and fluids. In short, he 

 occupies so high a place amongst the chemists of France that 

 those who are interested in the welfare of the Academy will 

 deem it an honour to have him enrolled amongst its Members. 

 M. Augustin-Louis Cauchy, the third name on the paper, is 

 a veteran analyst, who has carried his scientific conquests into 

 almost every region of Mathematics. He is also well known in 

 these countries as a philosopher who has applied the resources 

 of analysis to the discussion of the most difficult questions of 

 Physical Optics. If I were to enumerate the whole of his pub- 

 lished works, and give the Academy an idea of their contents, 

 the task would, I am sure, occupy me for the greater part of 

 a day. As regards the gentlemen who are proposed for elec- 

 tion in the department of Polite Literature, I feel that it be- 

 comes me to say but little. For me to rise and advocate the 

 claims of a Macaulay or a Prescott would be quite out of 

 place. The Members of the Academy know that they will do 

 themselves honour, and increase the respect in which the Aca- 

 demy is held by learned bodies abroad, if they enrol amongst 

 their Members men of such world-wide celebrity as these. 

 Macaulay, the historian, the critic, the poet, the philosopher, 

 — however individuals may find fault with his history, dissent 



