XXXVlll PEOCEEBINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Grammar School, Lichfield. In 1858 he was appointed Warden and 

 Professor of Classical Literature and Geology in Queen's College, 

 Birmingham. In 1862 he was presented by the Lord Chancellor to 

 the Eectory of Mollis, Suifolk, which he exchanged in 1867 for the 

 Yicarage of St. John's, Bethnal Green. On the 21st September, 

 1868 he suddenly died whilst residing in the midst of his family 

 circle; his removal to London, and his untiring exertions among 

 the poor of Bethnal Green, probably, materially abridged his life. 

 He was emphatically a hard worker both as clergyman and man of 

 science. 



Mr. Cumming was married in 1836, to Agnes, youngest daughter 

 of J. H. Peckham, Esq., who survives him with a family of four sons 

 and two daughters. 



Mr. Cumming was the author of a ' History of the Isle of Man,' 

 and of papers on " The Geology of the Isle of Man," " The Tertiaries 

 of the Moray Frith," " The Geology of the Calf of Man," and " The 

 Superior Limits of the Glacial Deposits in the Isle of Man," which 

 are published in our Journal. He became a Fellow of the Geolo- 

 gical Society in 1846. 



" A great reform in geological speculation seems now to have become ne- 

 cessary." 



"It is quite certain that a great mistake has been made, — that British 

 popular geology at the present time is in direct opposition to the principles of 

 Natural Philosophy"*. 



Iisr reviewing the course of geological thought during the past 

 year, for the purpose of discovering those matters to which I might 

 most fitly direct your attention in the Address which it now becomes 

 my duty to deliver from the Presidential Chair, the two somewhat 

 alarming sentences which I have just read, and which occur in an 

 able and interesting essay by an eminent natural philosopher, rose 

 into such prominence before my mind that they eclipsed everything 

 else. 



It surely is a matter of paramount importance for the British 

 geologists (some of them very popular geologists too) here in solemn 

 annual session assembled, to inquire whether the severe judgment 

 thus passed upon them by so high an authority as Sir William 

 Thomson is one to which they must plead guilty sans phrase, or 

 whether they are prepared to say " not guilty," and appeal for a 

 reversal of the sentence to that higher court of educated scientific 

 opinion to which we are all amenable. 



As your attorney-general for the time being, I thought I could not 

 do better than get up the case with a view of advising you. It is 

 true that the charges brought forward by the other side involve the 

 consideration of matters quite foreign to the pursuits with which I 

 am ordinarily occupied ; but in that respect I am only in the posi- 

 tion which is, nine times out of ten, occupied by counsel, who 

 nevertheless contrive to gain their causes, mainly by force of mother- 



* On G-eological Time. By Sir W. Thomson, LL.D. Transactions of the 

 Geological Society of Glasgow, vol. iii. 



