president's addees>s. 2t7 



He contributed papers to various learned societies, literary and 

 scientific, and took especial interest in the Society of Arts. He 

 assisted materially, by his local and antiquarian knowledge, in 

 the production of Hodgson's History of Northumberland. His 

 correspondence with learned men, both in England and abroad, 

 was considerable. The Museum and the Library at Wallington 

 were, both of them, choice and extensive. 



He was an ardent and consistent advocate of Temperance, 

 having been President of the United Kingdom Alliance and a 

 munificent contributor to its funds. He forbade the sale of in- 

 toxicating fluids on his estates, and set his face against the use 

 also of tobacco : these two, alcoholic liquors and tobacco, he con- 

 sidered injurious to the individual and to the public weal. 



Sir Walter was a Deputy Lieutenant of Somersetshire, and in 

 1850 was High Sheriff of JS'orthumberland. 



He was twice married, but leaves no issue. 



Sir Walter was elected President of the ''Tyneside ^Naturalists' 

 Field Club in 1853, and delivered the Anniversary Address on 

 March 15th, 1854; this is to be found in Yolume IE., at page 

 325, of the Club's Transactions. Though short it contains much 

 scientific information and several useful suggestions. Sir "Walter 

 was a learned, observant, and philanthropic man, and his loss 

 will be deeply felt in IS'orthumberland, and especially at Walling- 

 ton, which was his favourite seat. 



On the long contested problem of the origin, not of Species, 

 but of living organisms, the latest published information comes, 

 I believe, from the Lectures of the Rev. W. H. Dallinger, in 

 June last, at the Royal Institution ; the same gentleman whom 

 we had the advantage of hearing in the Lecture Room of the 

 Literary and Philosophical Society in February, 1878. 



" Mr. Dallinger showed that, by the aid of the most powerful 

 lenses, (including an object-glass with one-fiftieth of an inch 

 focal distance, though the most important jjart of his work was 

 done with a Powell and Lealand of one-thirty-fifth of an inch,) 

 he had been enabled to study the form, movements, and life his- 

 torv of a verv minute creature of the Sei)tic series of orpinisms, 



