274 



Fourteenth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science. York, September 16. 



[From the Athenaeum, — Continued from page 147.] 



The President's Address. 



The noble Lord, to whose office I succeed, and who has introduced 

 me to your notice, has spoken of me in terms, which, however flat- 

 tering to my pride, I can only accept as the expression of his friend- 

 ship and good- will ; and I hope he will permit me to add, that whilst 

 there are few persons for whose character and attainments I feel a 

 more sincere respect, there is none whose favourable opinion I 

 should be more anxious to merit. The members of the Association 

 who were present at the meeting at Cork can bear witness to the 

 courteous, dignified, and able manner in which he discharged the 

 duties of his office, whilst others, who, like myself, had the oppor- 

 tunity of seeing them, could not fail to be deeply impressed with the 

 magnificent works which are accomplished or in progress at his noble 

 residence at Birr Castle. Whatever met the eye was upon a gigantic 

 scale ; telescopic tubes through which the tallest man could walk 

 upright ; telescopic mirrors, whose weights are estimated not by pounds 

 but* by tons, polished by steam power with almost inconceivable ease 

 and rapidity, and with a certainty, and accuracy, and delicacy, exceed- 

 ing the most perfect productions of the most perfect manipulation ; 

 structures, for the support of the telescope and its machinery, more 

 lofty and massive than those of a Norman keep ; whilst the same ar- 

 rangements which secure the stability of masses which no ordinary 

 crane could move, provide likewise for their obeying the most delicate 

 impulse of the most delicate finger, or for following the stars in their 

 course, through the agency of clock-work, with a movement so steady 

 and free from tremors, as to become scarcely perceptible when in- 

 creased a thousand fold by the magnifying powers of the eye-glass. 

 The instruments, which were mounted and in operation at the time 

 of my visit, exceeded in optical power, and in the clearness and 

 precision of their definition of celestial objects, the most perfect pro- 

 ductions of the greatest modern artists ; and though much had been 

 then accomplished, and great difficulties had been overcome, by a 

 rare combination of mechanical, chemical, and mathematical skill and 



