86 



Re-elected. 



Hay, Colonel Andrew Leith. | Lowe. George, Esq. 



It was stated that the rejDort of the death of R. Z. Mudge, Capt. 



R..E., noticed at the last Anniversary, has been since found to be 

 erroneous. 



The following Address of His Royal Highness the President was 

 read from the Chair : 



Gentlemen, 



I CANNOT quit the Chair of the Royal Society, which I have now 

 occupied during a period of eight years, without availing myself of 

 the opportunity which the customaiy proceedings of the Anniver- 

 sary afford me, of expressing to you the grateful sense I entertain 

 of the great honour conferred upon me, by being chosen to fill so 

 distinguished an office, as likewise of the uniform kindness and 

 support which I have always received from the Members of the 

 Council and the Fellows of the Society generally, in the discharge 

 of its various and important duties. 



A review of my conduct during the period of my Presidency, re- 

 calls to my mind many occasions in which I am sensible that I have 

 been more or less wanting in the very responsible trust confided to 

 me, of watching over the interests of a Society most justly illustrious 

 by the succession of great men' who ha^"e been connected with it 

 and by the great advances which nearly every department of science 

 has received from those portions of their labours which are recorded 

 in its Transactions ; for some of these deficiencies I am unfortunately 

 enabled to refer to the severe and long continued visitations of dis- 

 ease and infirmity under which I have laboured, as a very sufficient 

 apology ; and I feel less oppressed than I othei-^ ise should have been, 

 by my consciousness of many others, by my knowledge of the ac- 

 tivity and zeal of the very able and efficient officers upon whom the 

 temporary discharge of my duties devolved, and from the assurance 

 which I felt, that the interests of the Society, when entrusted to 

 their care, would suff'er no detriment by my absence. 



Though justly proud of the distinction of presiding over the Royal 

 Society, and most anxious to promote, to the utmost of my power, 

 the great objects for which it was founded, I no sooner ascer- 

 tained that circumstances would probably, for a time, interfere with 

 my residence in London, during a considerable part of its An- 

 nual Session, and prevent my receiving its ^Members in a manner 

 compatible with my rank and position in this country, than I deter- 

 mined to retire from an office whose duties I could no longer flatter 

 myself as likely to be able to discharge in a manner answerable to 

 their expectations, or in accordance with my own feelings. Ha^-ing 

 come to this conclusion after the most anxious and painful consi- 

 deration, I deemed it due to the ^Members of the Council, in the first 

 instance, and next to the Fellows, to make it speedily and generally 



