﻿XXX PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



of his understanding, that in sustaining a controversial argument, on a 

 question so remote from his ordinary studies, he hetrays in no single 

 sentence those imperfect or unsound views so commonly apparent in 

 the writings of men who derive their knowledge exclusively from 

 books or conversation. It is scarcely necessary for me to remind you 

 of the interest which Sir R. Peel took in the geological department 

 of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain, and the Museum of Prac- 

 tical Geology ; the successful progress of which he watched with 

 friendly care to the last. These, as well as his exertions to improve 

 the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and the British Museum, show 

 that he was by no means of opinion that the cause of science should 

 be abandoned solely to voluntary associations of private individuals, 

 or might not with propriety derive support from national grants of 

 money. 



I cannot conclude these remarks without availing myself of the 

 opportunity of publicly acknowledging the annual grant of £ 1000 

 recently made by the First Lord of the Treasury, Lord John Russell, 

 to the Royal Society, as a boon by which Geology, as well as other 

 branches of science, cannot fail to be advanced, and in a manner en- 

 tirely free from the objections sometimes urged against Government 

 patronage. The expenditure of the money is entrusted to a Committee 

 chosen by the Royal Society, and therefore placed wholly beyond the 

 control of the minister or of any political influence. It is intended to 

 aid scientific investigations, whether by the purchase of instruments, 

 or by defraying the cost of experiments, or other expenses incurred. 

 We, who have witnessed the fruits of a much smaller fund, placed in 

 a similar manner at the disposal of the British Association, are justi- 

 fied in entertaining very sanguine expectations of the good which may 

 accrue from such a grant and the stimulus which it may supply to 

 original research. 



The recent death of the Marquis of Northampton has de- 

 prived the Society of one of its oldest members, one who was highly 

 respected for his talents and varied acquirements, and whose cheerful 

 temper and kind manner rendered him universally popular. He was 

 elected President of this Society in 1819, when Earl Compton, and 

 during the first of the two years in which he filled this chair, he read 

 a paper on the Geology of the South coast of Mull in the Hebrides. 



