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Address of Sir William Thompson. 275 
elers of all nations, from our home magnetic observatories, 
from the magnetic observatories of St. Helena, the Cape, Van 
Diemen’s Land, and Toronto, and from the scientific observa- 
tories of other countries, have been brought together by Sabine. 
Silently, day after day, night after night, for a quarter of a cen- 
tury, he has toiled with one constant assistant always by his 
side, to reduce these observations and prepare for the great work. 
At this moment, while we are here assembled, I believe that, in 
their quiet summer retirement in Wales, Sir Edward and Lady 
Sabine are at work on the magnetic chart of the world. If two 
years of life and health are granted to them, science will be 
provided with a key which must powerfully conduce to the 
ultimate opening up of one of the most refractory enigmas of 
cosmical physics, the cause of terrestrial magnetism 
0 give any sketch, however slight, of scientific investigation 
on the present occasion. A detailed account of work done and 
knowledge gained in science Britain ought to have every year. 
h 
notable 
for Something new. But nearly all the grandest discoveries : 
science have been but the rewards of accurate measurement an 
