634 



may not be very materially less ; I do not think however that this 

 ought to be any matter of regret. If we have the means we can- 

 not put them to a nobler use, or one more consonant to the wishes 

 of our illustrious Founder. 



Gentlemen, we must remember that, though we are a Royal So- 

 ciety, our true glory does not rest on our Royal Foundation, nor on 

 Royal Patronage. Nor does it rest on the names of the illustrious 

 nobles, of the eminent statesmen, or of those distinguished in art or 

 literature who may have given lustre to the lists of our Members. 

 Nor yet does it arise from the array of foreign philosophers, who 

 have considered that it is a desirable reward of their discoveries to 

 be Honorary ^Members of our body. Nor even does it rest on the 

 great lights of science, either still burning, or extinguished in death, 

 who belong, or who have belonged to our Society. No, Gentlemen, 

 our true glory must be chiefly found in our scientific utility, — in the 

 manner in which we have fulfilled our duties and promoted the ob- 

 jects of our Founders, and more especially must we look for our true 

 title of honour in our Transactions. 



I regret, Gentlemen, that it is not in my pov/er to announce to 

 you any definitive arrangement by M hich our Anniversary should be 

 lield at a more genial and convenient season of the year, — at a time 

 ■when we might expect a larger concourse of our Members to witness 

 the bestowal of our Medals, to listen to an account of those Fellows 

 whose loss w^e have reason to deplore, to attend to the statement 

 of our finances, and lastly, to take a part in the important constitu- 

 tional duty of electing the Officers and Council for the ensuing year. 

 This important object has not been absent from the thoughts and 

 deliberations of your Council. In the course of those deliberations 

 changes in the mode of electing Fellows, and other alterations have 

 been suggested, requiring mature consideration and discussion. In 

 consequence of these delays I have it not at this moment in my 

 power to announce to you any definite arrangement. 



Gentlemen, T am now arrived at the most agreeable part of my 

 Presidential duty, — the pleasant task of acknowledging and confer- 

 ring honorar}' rewards on scientific merit. I regret. Gentlemen, that 

 in conferring one of these Medals on a distinguished foreigner, we 

 are not to have present the discoverer of the new planet; I rejoice 

 however that he is on this occasion to be represented by the son of 

 another illustrious foreigner, the native subject however of our own 

 Sovereign, and become an Englishman by his residence, and still 

 more by his scientific discoveries in England, and himself the dis- 

 coverer of one of the most distant of the sister worlds, who travel 

 round the same fixed star as we do. It is an interesting fact to us on 

 the present occasion that it is to the slight disturbance of the motion 

 of the planet Herschel, that we owe our knowledge of the planet 

 Le Verrier. From the courtesy due to a stranger, I am sure you 

 will think me right, before bestowing the Medals on our own Fara- 

 day and Owen, that I summon to my side the representative of Le 

 Verrier. 



