ADDRESS. 
x!v 
dual benevolence is promoted by personal intercourse in tliese re*unions, the 
benefit of the labours of every such association is national also. None can 
doubt that the reputation of our country depends far more on its intellectual 
strength than on its military glory. Without for a moment undervaluing 
those to whom in past ages as in the present England is—humanly—in¬ 
debted not merely for her empire hut for preservation also, I cannot doubt 
that the European reputation of England is owing far more to Newton tJian 
to Marlborough. 1 believe that every new discovery of science which En¬ 
gland is permitted to make, while k adds perhaps directly to her wealth, or 
indirectly to the development of her resources, adds .nlso to her influence in 
the scale of nations. Our government has exercised a prudent and saga¬ 
cious liberality in adopting thus far the suggestions of tin* Association for 
tile advancement of science ; and it may be well assured that such sugges¬ 
tions, made cautiously and disinterestedly by this Association, will continue 
to advance the public interests, as well as the mere incidental honour of the 
body from which they proceed, and which, from past cxpcricnrc, may justly 
claim the confidence of the State. 
The interest of our nation in science has kept pace with the encourage¬ 
ment given by public authority to the cultivation of science. 
Our National Collection may now be compared, not ostentatiously, but 
thankfully, with tliose of other countries; rcinenibering also that many of 
our collections are little more than half a century old. 
The ornithological, the concliological, the mammalian divisions in the 
British Museum, are equal, I believe, to those of any other capital; greatly 
owing to the talents and lalmur of the eminent head of the department, Mr. 
Gray, whom I see here. The fossil divisions, under the care of my zealous, 
laborious and able friend, Mr. Kdnig, are perhaps superior—in some classes 
beyond comparison—to the analogous collcctiona in any other Museum. 
Last year there w.aH added to the pniffiontology of the British .Museum the 
unique specimens of the Hali’tberiuni of Kaup, the Ceplialaspis of Lycll, the 
Lepidoie of Fition 5 and the collection of fossil osteology is, as it ought to 
be, the first in England. The number of visitors, which six yeor^ ago w.-is 
319,000, was last year above 750,000. 
I may be permitted to add, in reference to another great Institution, that 
the collections of comparative anatomy in the Hunterian Museum arc the 
first in the world,—aa they ought to be, when it is recollected that John 
Hunter was the founder, that the Uoyal College of Surgeons of England are 
the patrons, and that Kichard Owen in the curator of that Institution. 
With these indlc.itions of the stale of science and of the taste for science 
diffused in our own country,—sometimes as the fruit of the labours of this 
Association, sometimes as collateral and incidental, and even distinct results, 
but all showing the progress of physical knowledge, or the means of extend¬ 
ing and familiarizing it amongst us,—I might finish tny Address. 
But I cannot conclude without congratulating The University and The .\s- 
sociarion alike on tliia assemblage. 
\Ve can never forget that the earliest, and in every sense the first of the 
scientific bodies of Enghand, the Uoyal Society, derived, as we learn from 
Bishop Sprat, its original and contemporary historian, its foundation in (his 
place. We can never forget that Bishop Wilkins, the predecessor of my 
honoured friend the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford in the government of Wad- 
ham College, was the chief promoter of its designs; that Sir W. Betty, thr 
Wrens, Seth Ward and Walh's were his associates; and that here for four¬ 
teen years our own great and good Robert Boyle, pre-eminent amongst early 
e 
