” 
4 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 
Association. Under the active presidency of the Governor- 
General, Sir W. T. Denison, the Philosophical Society speedily 
attained a considerable amount of popularity. It held its first 
meeting in the School of Arts, on 9th May, 1856, and at the next 
meeting ninety-one new Members were elected. About forty 
more were added during the remainder of the year; and fourteen — 
papers were read, two being by the President. The place of 
meeting was speedily changed to the hall of the Australian 
Library, now the Free Public Library, where it remained, with 
occasional migrations to the Exchange, till the formation of the 
Royal Society, which also continued its meetings at the Library 
till 1869, when it moved to the Exchange, and continued there 
till May, 1875, when it occupied the present building, first as 
tenant of the Academy of Art, and finally as proprietor in 1878. 
The early prosperity of the Philosophical Society yielded after 
a few years to the usual reaction that we are only too familiar 
with in all new organisations attempted in Sydney. Perhaps. 
also it suffered from the partial withdrawal of vice-regal patronage, 
if that, however, was not rather an effect than a cause of waning 
popularity. Sir W. Denison was not only largely instrumental in 2 
starting the Society, but he continued during his term of office to — 
attend the meetings and to take a lively interest in the proceedings. _ 
| On his leaving the Colony at the close of 1860, the Society q 
presented him with an address, in which the following words 
occur:— We desire to express our warm acknowledgments for the a 
services you have rendered to the Society, and to the cause of science 9 
generally. * * * * ‘To your successful exertions at an early — 
period after your arriyal in the Colony we are indebted for the — 
reorganisation of the Society on a satisfactory basis, &c.” His 4 
successor, Sir John Young, afterwards Lord Lisgar, frequently 
presided over the monthly meetings, but as the attendance E 
dwindled away he came to the conclusion that his presence was — 
“not beneficial. In his remarks at the close of the Rev. Mr. q 
Clarke’s inaugural address to the Royal Society, in July, 1867, 4 
ne is reported to have spoken as follows :—‘‘His Excellency — 
