90 



this year adjudged for his magnetical researches, my cotemporary and 

 fellow student at Gottingen, has instituted a system of simultaneous 

 observations on the periodical and irregular movements of the mag- 

 netic needle at various stations in different parts of Europe, which 

 suggest conclusions of the most surprising and interesting nature ; 

 these can only be fully w^orked out and confirmed by the adoption 

 of a similar system of observations in places extremely remote from 

 each other on the surface of the globe. The researches on the tides, 

 which have been so laboriously and so successfully prosecuted by 

 Professor Whewell and Mr. Lubbock, have led, and can lead to few 

 general and certain conclusions without the aid of labours of this 

 nature ; and a memorable exemplification of their value, even when 

 given in their rudest and least perfect form*, is presented in the 

 discovery of the " Law of Storms," which Col. Reid has recently 

 published, and which promises results so important to the interests 

 of navigation and the cause of humanity. In the science of Mete- 

 orology, which still remains destitute even of approximations to ge- 

 neral laws, it is to a well-organized system of simultaneous observa- 

 tions that we must look for the acquisition of such a knowledge of 

 the range and character of atmospheric influences and changes, as 

 may become the basis of a well-compacted and consistent theory, 

 and rescue this science from the reproach, under which it has too 

 long and too justly laboured, of presenting little more than a con- 

 fused mass of almost entirely insulated results. Undertakings, how- 

 ever, of this extensive and laborious nature are far beyond the 

 reach of individual enterprize, and can only be accomplished by 

 national aid and co-operation. 



We have lately witnessed an example v>-here the Storthing, or 

 National Assembly of Norway, a body composed partly of peasants, 

 and representing one of the poorest countries in Europe, undertook 

 the charge of a magnetical expedition to Siberia, on the recom- 

 mendation and under the direction of their distinguished countiy- 

 man, M. Hansteen, at the same time that they refused a grant of 

 money to aid in building a palace for their sovereign ; and I feel 

 confident that the united wishes of men of science in this and 

 other countries, whose influence on public opinion is becoming 

 daily more and more manifest, particularly when expressed in favour 

 of purely scientific objects which cannot be effected without the as- 

 sistance and the resources of the nation, will not be without their 

 effect on the Government of our own country, which has always 

 taken the lead in the promotion of geographical as well as scientific 

 investigations and discoveries, and which possesses, beyond any other 

 nation, advantages for their prosecution and accomplishment, not 

 merely from its superior wealth, but from the range and distribution 

 of its commerce and its colonies in every region of the globe. 



There is one other event to which 1 wish to advert previously to 

 concluding this portion of my address to you, and which I conceive 

 I may do with the strictest propriety, as it is closely connected with 



* From the logs of ships. 



