Ivi 
FIFTH REPORT-1835. 
servations on the tides in the port of Brest, which has, I am informed, 
been ordered by the French Government, at the request of M. Arago 
and the French Board of Longitudes, who were stimulated to make 
that request by a recommendation of the British Association at Edin¬ 
burgh. Many other topics, also, connected with your progress and 
prospects, I must pass over, having occupied your time so long; and 
in particular I must waive what, indeed, is properly a subject for your 
general committee—-the consideration whether anything can be done, 
or left undone, to increase still more the usefulness of this Association, 
and the respect and good will with which it is already regarded by the 
other institutions of this and of other countries. As an Irishman, and 
a native of Dublin, I may be suffered in conclusion to add my own to 
the many voices which welcome this goodly company of English, and 
Scottish, and foreign visitors to Ireland and to Dublin. We cannot, 
indeed, avoid regretting that many eminent persons, whose presence 
we should much enjoy, are not in this assembly; though not, we trust, 
in any case, from want of their good will or good opinion. Especially 
we must regret the absence of Sir David Brewster, who took so active 
a part in forming this association: but I am authorized, by a letter 
from himself, to mention that his absence proceeds entirely from pri¬ 
vate causes, and that they form the only reason why he is not here. 
Herschel, too, is absent; he has borne with him to another hemisphere 
his father’s fame and his own; perhaps, from numbering the nebulae 
invisible to northern eyes, he turns even now away to gaze upon some 
star, which we, too, can behold, and to be iri spirit among us. And 
other names we miss ; but great names, too, are here : enough to give 
assurance that in brilliance and useful effect, this Dublin meeting of the 
Association will not be inferior to former assemblings, but will realize 
our hopes and wishes, and not only give a new impulse to science, but 
also cement the kindly feeling which binds us all together already. 
