12 



A^^NUAL MEETl^s'G. 



The Hon. Secretaey (Captain Petrie, E.G.S.). — Sir Josepli 

 Fayrcr, my Lord, ladies and gentlemen : In thanking Professor 

 Hull for the very kind remarks that he has made in regard to 

 myself, I feel they are more than I deserve ; it is to the Council 

 that so much is due. As one of the earliest of the founders of 

 the Institute I can say this — that w^ith such a Council it would be 

 perfectly easy for anybody to conduct the affairs of this Institute. 



The Right Honourable Lord Halsbury, Lord High Chancellor 

 (Vice-President), then delivered the following Address : — 



A DISTINGUISHED President of this Society once 

 said that to gauge thoroughly the amount of evidence 

 on which an asserted scientific conclusion rests, one ought to 

 be well acquainted with the branch of science to which it 

 relates, but that still one might get a fair general notion of 

 the evidence by an amount of reading by no means 

 prohibitive or by conversing with those who have made 

 that branch a special study. 



I should think the Council of this Institute must have 

 been moved by some such reflection in requesting me to 

 deliver the Annual Address. I certainly am not entitled 

 to mount the platform as a teacher but rather as the average 

 auditor and student to say something of our work and 

 our methods. 



Not altogether unfamiliar with the process of considering 

 the weight of evidence, and taught by some experience 

 to listen to both sides, I may, perhaps, be qualified to give 

 an opinion on the value of a particular argument, though I 

 do not of course pretend to have formed no opinion upon 

 the great question, the investigation and support of which 

 forms, I believe, the charter of this Inslitute. 



According to our methods the investigation must be both 

 thorough and independent. Other avocations have hitherto 

 prevented me from taking much part in the discussions 

 myself, but I have had the advantage of reading what wise 

 and learned men have written and said upon the various 

 subjects Avhich have been brought under review, and I 

 observe that they have been thoroughly dissected, argued, 

 and freely discussed. It is one of the supreme advantages 



