508 
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, CIRENCESTER. 
be some of the most intelligent men we ever had. I will tell you another 
thing—it is not because we need to glorify ourselves—but it was a ques¬ 
tion of expense, and Professors Brown and Voelcker, and myself said, 
“ We have faith that this college will get on well, for no institution is 
more wanted, and if money is at all in the way, we will give our services 
for twelve months for nothing rather than see it fail, (Cheers.) Gentle¬ 
men, that cheer shows you that we have not been amongst the men who 
wished to iniure the college. We worked hard, and it was found not 
necessary for us to make any sacrifice of the kind suggested, and the 
principal and the council would not accept of any such sacrifice. You 
know how the college went on, and at that principal’s death there were 
somewhere about a hundred students. It was then carried on by the 
professors, under the presidency of Professor Brown; and during that 
quarter, so far from losing a student, I believe we added three or four to 
the number. I could only wish that even such an increase had been con¬ 
tinued. I am quite aware that I cannot go on without raising subjects of 
irritation, and therefore I must beg to thank you most heartily and cor¬ 
dially for the kind reception you have accorded us this day. My brother 
professors will have the opportunity of addressing you, and you won’t at 
all consider it necessary that these points I have touched upon should be 
seconded by them; but it is right I should tell you that this crisis with 
regard to the college has been brought about not by the professors. 
We do not desire to leave, and never desired to leave this place; and 
whatever may be said to the contrary about our wishing to stay, I 
assert before this influential meeting that we showed every disposition to 
remain at the college. And why? Unkind people may say, but none 
of you will say, that it was on account of the large salaries we were 
receiving. If it had not been for other matters beside the college, I 
could not have lived here. The college stipend would not have been 
sufficient for me to have married on; and those cheers just now remind 
me that I am married and have three children. My wife found every¬ 
thing pleasant and nice, and was well received here, and she became so 
attached to the house in which we lived that she determined me to buy 
it. That did not look as if we wished to leave, and did not care to stay 
here. I was devoted to my work, and I do say, though not in a vaunting 
spirit, that my pupils were attached to me, and whatever has ever been 
done to divert them from me, I know and feel that they are attached to 
me still (cheers). I have been myself attached to various scientific 
pursuits. I commenced to lecture—and I may say successfully—upon 
geology and botany; and I can point now to students in my class who 
are now members of the geological and botanical societies, and fellows 
of the Society of Antiquaries—men who have gone on flourishing in 
the pursuits they delighted in. It is not at all that I have taught 
them everything; but there is something in general conversation, and 
there is something in taking young minds into a field, and directing 
them in such a manner that they can easily walk along and teach them¬ 
selves (cheers). I have found in this district everything that could give 
me delight. If I turned to botanical pursuits, I found a glorious flora in 
every direction ; and by the kind permission of Lord Bathurst, I had 
access to the park, and could range over it as freely as if it were my 
own. In fact I ventured once to say to him that I was more the owner 
than he, without any of the trouble of it. Again, if I went to examine 
the diflTerent quarries around the neighbourhood. I found glorious speci¬ 
mens of every fossil I could desire; and when I looked at the beautiful 
antiquities of this neighbourhood, I could not help being in love with 
them. Some of these have been collected, and we have some of them in 
