Proceedings of the British Association. 



591 



when the office I now hold has been filled by men distinguished by 

 scientific acquirement, it was, I believe, found possible and convenient 

 for such Presidents to include ill a preliminary discourse, a compressed 

 but instructive statement of past proceedings and present objects The 

 punctual and complete observance of such a practice, indeed, could not 

 be consistent with those arrangements which admit to the occasional 

 honour of your Presidency, individuals, selected, like myself, not for 

 any scientific pretensions, but from the accidents of local connexion 

 with the place, rather than the objects of the assemblage. I apprehend 

 that other reasons of equal urgency exist, calculated to make this 

 custom one of partial observance. The operations of this Society have 

 grown with its growth, and expanded with its strength ; and I am 

 happy to believe that it would be difficult for the most able and in- 

 structed of those with whose knowledge I am proud, for the moment, to 

 find my own ignorance associated, now to compress into reasonable 

 limits, and to reduce to terms adapted to a mixed audience, a satisfacto- 

 ry summary of scientific proceedings, past and contemplated, connected 

 with the labours of this Society. If, indeed, I look to the proceed- 

 ings of the last year's meeting at Plymouth, I find some warrant for 

 this supposition. You met last year, indeed, under different auspices. 

 I cannot forget — I wish for the moment you could — how your chair 

 was then filled and its duties discharged. Could you forget the fact, it 

 were hardly to my interest to awaken your recollection to it, that such 

 a man filled last year at Plymouth, an office which I now hold at Man- 

 chester. I do so for the purpose of remarking that he, more able, per- 

 haps, than any man living in this country to give you a concise and 

 brilliant summary of all that he and his fellow labourers are doing, for- 

 bore in his discretion from that endeavour. If he, then, who is known 

 in matters of science to have run. 



" Through each mode of the lyre, and be master of all," 

 abstained from that undertaking, I may now be excused, not for my 

 own silence, which would require no apology, but for not calling on one 

 of your other functionaries to supply my place for the purpose. 



Slightly, indeed, before I sit down, I may presume to touch on one 

 or two topics which I may consider immediately illustrative of the ad- 

 vantages of this Institution. In the first instance, however, allow me 

 to indulge for a moment in the expression of feelings of congratulation 

 on the subject of the particular locality which sees us here together. 

 Guests and strangers will excuse me — inhabitants, I think, will sympa- 

 thise with me, if, as a neighbour, and all but an inhabitant, I indulge 

 in some avowal of complacency on this subject. It is not merely that 



