1885.] 



President's A ddress. 



281 



Those among my hearers whose memories go back forty years will 

 remember that, at that time, the Society was in great danger of losing 

 its scientific character, though it would doubtless have taken it a long 

 time, and a good deal of perversity, to get rid of its scientific reputa- 

 tion. It had become the fashion to append F.R.S. to a name, and 

 the scientific members were in danger of being swamped by the 

 invasion of dilettanti. The aim of our eminent colleague, Sir William 

 Grove, and his friends, who fought the battle of 1847, and thereby, 

 to my mind, earned the undying gratitude of all who have the 

 interests of science at heart, was not to create an academy of im- 

 mortals, but to save the Fellowship of the Society from becoming a 

 sham and an imposture. And they succeeded in their object by 

 carrying a measure of reform which embodied two principles — 

 the first, that of the practical responsibility of the Council for the 

 elections, the second, that of the limitation of the number of can- 

 didates annually elected. The result of the steady adherence of the 

 Society to these principles for thirty-eight years is that, year by 

 year, the Society has approached more and more closely to that 

 representative character which, I cannot but think, it is eminently 

 desirable it should possess. 



During a great part of this time I have enjoyed more and closer 

 opportunities than most people of watching the working of our 

 system. Mistakes have been made now and then, no doubt, for even 

 members of Council are fallible ; but it is more than thirty years 

 since the propriety of the selections made by the Council has been 

 challenged at a general meeting ; and I have never heard a question 

 raised as to the conscientiousness with which the work is done, or 

 as to the desire of the Council to mete out even-handed justice to 

 the devotees of all branches of science. I am very strongly of 

 opinion that if the Royal Society were a " Chamber of Science," 

 subject to dissolution, and that after such dissolution a general 

 election, by universal suffrage of the members of all scientific bodies, 

 in the kingdom, took place, an overwhelming majority of the present 

 Fellows would be re-elected. 



Such being my conviction, it is natural that I should express a 

 fervent hope that the Society will never be tempted to depart from the 

 principles of the method by which, at present, it recruits its strength. 

 It is quite another question, however, whether it is desirable to 

 retain the present limit to our annual addition or to increase it. 



There is assuredly nothing sacred in the number 15 ; nor any good 

 reason that I know of for restricting the total strength of our home 

 list to 460 or 470 ; so long as our recruits approve themselves good 

 soldiers of science the more we enrol the better. And if I may 

 pursue the metaphor, I will add that I do not think it desirable that 

 our corps should consist altogether of general officers. Any such 



