5 



Bond Cabbell, Esq. ; James Carson, M.D. ; William Tierney Clark, 

 Esq. ; George Edward Frere, Esq. ; Thomas Graham, Esq., M.A. ; 

 Charles Holland, M.D. ; William Hopkins, Esq., M.A. ; Robert 

 Hunter, Esq. ; James F. W. Johnston, Esq., M.A. ; Richard Par- 

 tridge, Esq. ; Joseph Ellison Portlock, Esq. ; John Urpath Ras- 

 trick, Esq.; John Forbes Royle, M.D.; Frederic C. Skey, Esq.; 

 John F. Smith, Esq. ; Samuel Solly, Esq. ; the Rev. William Wal- 

 ton ; J. R. Wellsted, Esq.; Richard Westmacott, Esq.; William 

 Archibald Armstrong W^hite, Esq. ; William Page W^ood, Esq. 



On the Foreign List. — M. Becquerel ; Prof. Ehrenberg ; Ad- 

 miral von Krusenstern ; Chevalier Mirbel. 



The following Address of His Royal Highness the President to 

 the present Meeting, was read from the Chair by the Chairman. 



Gentlemen, 



When I last had the honour of addressing you from this Chair, I 

 ventured to express a hope that the happy restoration of my sight, 

 and the continued possession of health, would have enabled me to 

 discharge, with becoming regularity, the duties of President of this 

 Society during those portions of the year in which I am generally 

 resident in London : the fulfilment, however, of that hope was un- 

 happily frustrated by a long and dangerous illness, which confined 

 me for several months to my apartments and from the effects of 

 which I have hardly yet entirely recovered. I trust. Gentlemen, 

 you will pardon me if I look forward with brighter hopes to the 

 prospects of another year ; and if I hesitate to regard the unhappy 

 experience of that which is past as a premonition of the fate which 

 awaits me in those which are to come ; if such were my assurance 

 or reasonable fear, I should acquiesce in the duty and propriety of 

 at once retiring from this Chair and of no longer soliciting the re- 

 newal of an honour which I have enjoyed for so many years ; but if 

 it should be the pleasure of that good Providence, whose chastise- 

 ments and whose mercies I have so often before experienced, to dis- 

 able me from presiding over this Society in such a manner as might 

 be considered necessary for the protection and maintenance of its 

 just interests and dignity, I should bow with humble resignation to 

 the expression of His will, and resign into other hands the discharge 

 of those duties for which I should feel myself no longer qualified. 



Since the last Annual Session of this Society we have lost. Gen- 

 tlemen, a most munificent patron and benefactor, by the demise of 

 our late most gracious Sovereign, King William the Fourth, of whom 

 it is difficult for me to speak in terms which do justice to my feelings^. 

 He was, indeed, not less distinguished by the exalted station which 

 he filled, than by the warmth and sincerity of his affections as a 

 husband, a brother, and a friend ; by the undisguised frankness and 

 truth of his character as a man ; and as a monarch, by his patriotic 

 zeal to increase the efficiency and secure the permanence of the^ 

 great institutions of his country and to extend to all classes of hi* 

 subjects the blessings of peace and knowledge and the protection 



