572 



trie facts to guide us to laws. Even the little that has been 

 done in the last few years, respecting cyclonic storms, has 

 given birth to a system of hurricane navigation, that has 

 saved British property and British life to an incalculable 

 amount. But I feel that you think, with me, that we should 

 disgrace ourselves if we took such humble ground. We hold 

 that whatever adds to true knowledge, whatever widens the 

 grasp of enlightened intellect, is precious ; whatever opens a 

 new view of the secrets of divine power and the majesty of 

 creative wisdom is glorious, is inestimable." 



Dr. Petrie read an account of the Cross of Cong. 



" In offering to the Academy some account of the very in- 

 teresting remain of antiquity now before us, and which is po- 

 pularly known as the ' Cross of Cong,' 1 am but fulfilling a 

 promise made long ago to the noble-minded and highly gifted 

 man by whom it was presented to our institution; and while 

 oppressed with the sad recollections which the performance 

 of this duty naturally awakens, it is a great consolation to me, 

 that I feel the time and the occasion to be peculiary appro- 

 priate to my task, and such as he would have himself desired, 

 namely, when we are honoured with the presence at our meet- 

 ing of the illustrious representative of our gracious monarch 

 in Ireland, the viceroy whom we recognise as the friend of our 

 institution, and the zealous and enlightenedsupporter of every 

 pursuit and object tending to the social, moral, and intellectual 

 improvement of the portion of the empire placed under his 

 peculiar care. 



" It would be wholly unbecoming in one of my humble 

 intellectual station to oflFer any panegyrical observations on 

 the general character of the eminent man to whom we are in- 

 debted for the possession of this remarkable remain, a man 

 whose death has left a blank not easily to be filled, even in 



