390 



MONDAY, APRIL 9, 1866. 



Lord Talbot de Malahide, President, in the Chair. 



Archibald Collum, Jun., Esq. ; Lieut. -Colonel Edward Cooper, M.P.; 

 the Rev. James Gaffney ; Edward Hudson Kinahan, Esq. ; W. H. S . 

 Westropp, Esq. ; Alexander G. More, Esq. ; [John A. Byrne, M. D. ; 

 and J. K. Forrest, Esq., were elected members of the Academy. 



The President then delivered the following 



Inaugural Address. 



Gentlemen, — Permit me, in the first place, to tender you my respectful 

 thanks for the kind manner in which you have been pleased to elect me 

 to the Chair of this illustrious Society. I shall always value it as one 

 of the highest honours which could be conferred on an Irish gentleman. 

 I am, at the same time, fully conscious of my many shortcomings, and 

 am well aware that there are many individuals amongst you who have 

 higher claims for this distinction, from their researches in science, their 

 discoveries in physics, their unwearied attention to the great questions 

 of archaeology, and their achievements in the field of polite literature. 

 There was one man to whom we particularly owed this acknowledgment 

 of his great services — I allude to George Petrie, on whom our late Pre- 

 sident passed so eloquent, so heart- stirring, and so well-deserved an enco- 

 mium, at one of our last meetings. Alas ! he has left us ; and it remains 

 for the surviving members of our body to follow up his great discoveries, 

 and to illustrate fully the pages of early Irish history. We must not, 

 however, be remiss in our endeavours to secure for his family some re- 

 cognition of his patriotism, and some reward for his labours. I trust 

 that the Government of this great country will not be deaf to our ap- 

 peal on behalf of his bereaved family, and that posterity will be able to 

 see a permanent memorial of him in the addition of his valuable museum 

 to our national collection. 



It would be presumptuous on my part to dwell at any length upon 

 the prospects of mathematical and physical science in this country. I 

 feel quite incompetent to the task ; but, thank God, I have imbibed, 

 during my academical education, sufficient taste for science to be able 

 to appreciate the great advance which has been attained in our days, 

 both as regards analytical and geometrical processes, through the labours 

 of the late Sir William R. Hamilton, and the other great mathematicians 

 connected with our Society. 



Within the last month science has lost one of its most ardent 

 and painstaking votaries, by the death of Professor Whewell — a gentle- 

 man who combined with a complete knowledge of science in all its 

 branches a cultivated taste for literature, and an appreciation of every 

 intellectual pursuit. I have taken the liberty of mentioning his name, 

 as I feel proud of his friendship, which I have enjoyed for the last forty 



