PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
GEOLOGICAL & POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY 
et tfje Wit&U&ftmQ of SorfttftKrt, 
AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, HELD IN THE PHILOSOPHIC AL HALL, 
LEEDS, ON WEDNESDAY, DEC. 15TH, 1852. 
John Hope Shaw, Esq., Mayor of Leeds, in the Chair. 
His Worship opened the business of the meeting by 
observing, that he was very sensible of the honour of being 
placed in the chair, but not so self-deluded as to mistake the 
grounds on which alone the Society would be justified in 
conferring such an honour, or he in accepting it. It could 
not be from any expectation of assistance from him in their 
scientific pursuits, his knowledge of which was only that 
general acquaintance with principles common to men of liberal 
education ; enough to enable him to relish scientific discussion 
by others, but not to take a part in it. He could only have 
been selected for the chair on account of his public office in 
the borough, and of his having been formerly the President 
of the Society in whose hall they were assembled, and being 
still one of its vice-presidents, and a member of its Council. 
He then proceeded to remark on the high place of Geology 
amongst physical sciences, as second only to astronomy; — not, 
indeed, comparable with it in sublimity, (for the highest sub- 
limities of earth sink into insignificance in comparison with 
the magnificence of that universe in which the earth itself 
was but a speck), but still presenting to us a series of 
wonders that must strike the mind with profound admiration. 
