572 



meetings more spirit and more interest, and will at the same time 

 promote the investigation of physical truth, and so most efficiently 

 fulfil the objects for which the Society itself was instituted. 



It appears to me, and your present Council have concurred in the 

 opinion, that the period of our Anniversary, in the gloomy month of 

 November, and at a time when London is comparatively deserted, is 

 extremely inconvenient. It is very inconvenient for your Council 

 itself, which is obliged more than once to assemble for the purpose 

 of preliminary arrangements before the commencement of our au- 

 tumnal evening meetings. It is also very inconvenient to, the body 

 at large, and in truth has a tendency to restrict the assembly of our 

 members on the important day of the election of the new Council 

 to those who are resident in London. At the time when St. An- 

 drew's day was selected, the London season commenced much 

 earlier than it now does, and it was probably the best fitted for 

 securing a large attendance. I shall certainly, if I again occupy the 

 honourable situation of your President, bring the question before 

 your new Council, but it is not yet clear how this inconvenience 

 can be obviated. 



The magnetic observations that have now for several years been 

 carried on simultaneously at different establishments by our own 

 and other governments, were not undertaken by Her Majesty's 

 Government for a longer period than the termination of the present 

 year. It was therefore deemed advisable to invite the conductors 

 of those observations in foreign countries, to communicate their 

 opinions in writing, and after doing so, to come over to England at 

 the time of the meeting of the British Association. It was pro- 

 posed then to hold a congress for the consideration of the propriety 

 of continuing the magnetic observations. Such a congress met at 

 Cambridge last summer, probably the largest combination of men 

 of the highest attainments in science from every part of Europe 

 that ever met together in a scientific parliament, whose object was 

 tlie solution of some of the most interesting problems in natural 

 philosophy. There were to be seen together the Astronomers 

 Royal of England and Ireland, Dr. Lloyd, and Colonel Sabine, who 

 had taken the most active part in arranging and combining the 

 joint magnetic operations. Sir John Herschel, the President of the 

 British Association, his immediate predecessors the Dean of Ely, and 

 Lord Rosse, and many other gentlemen whom the Royal Society is 

 proud to name among her Fellows, together with the representatives 

 of the highest science of the continent. That, as your President, I 

 should have had the opportunity of taking even the humblest part in 

 such a meeting will ever be esteemed by me one of the highest honours 

 to which your too favourable consideration has raised me. After 

 anxious deliberation, the Congress recommended to the British Go- 

 vernment and to the East India Company the continuation of the 

 observations on a modified, and in some respects a reduced scale. 

 To the Council of the Royal Society, some of whose members had 

 already taken an active part in the deliberations of the Congress, I 

 reported the resolutions adopted at Cambridge, and the Council 



