December 1, 1856. ANNIVERSARY MEETING. The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair. Dr. Tyndall reported, on the part of the Auditors of the Treasurer's Accounts, that the total receipts during the last year, including £360 arising from the sale of a portion of the Acton Estate, and £200 bequeathed by the late Henry Lawson, Esq., F.R.S., amounted to £3780 3s. ld., and that the total payments in the same period, including £560 invested in the Funds, amounted to £3643 88. 10d., leaving a balance due by the Treasurer to the Society of £136 148. 3d. The thanks of the Society were voted to the Treasurer and Auditors. List of Fellows deceased since the last Anniversary. On the Home List. Hon. George Charles Agar, M.A. | Rev. John Philip Higman. James, Earl of Bandon. Rear-Admiral Frederick William Beechey. Admiral Philip Parker King. John Fletcher Miller, Esq. Sir William Edward Rouse Bough- Sir Benjamin Outram, M.D. ton, Bart. Very Rev. Wm. Buckland, D.D. William Hasledine Pepys, Esq. James Meadows Rendel, Esq. Sam. E. Widdrington, Capt. R.E. On the Foreign List. Jacques Charles François Sturm. The President then addressed the Society as follows: GENTLEMEN, SINCE We last met to celebrate the Anniversary of this time-honoured Institution, events have taken place which it would be improper to pass over in silence. I allude, of course, to the occupation of Burlington House, which we owe to the liberality and due appreciation of Science of Her Majesty's Government. Your Council have already taken measures for the purpose of communicating to you the most important information respecting our proposed migration, which may be said to have already commenced, though some time must yet elapse before it can be finally completed. As soon as Her Majesty's Government had been apprised that this Society had accepted their offer of apartments on the site in question, in conjunction with the Linnean and Chemical Societies, directions were given for commencing the necessary works, and I have the gratification of being able to announce to you, that considerable progress has already been made: the eastern wing is ready for the reception of the University, and the Great Hall is nearly completed. The main building will be shortly delivered over to our custody; and I entertain confident hopes that the removal of the Society may take place early in the ensuing year, though the Great Hall in the west wing may not be in a fit state for painting. This, however, will not prevent its temporary occupation until such time as it may be necessary to vacate it for the purpose of its final completion. During the recess and progress of the works, suggestions of certain alterations in the official plans have been made, some of which have been acceded to by the Government, and I have every reason to believe that no unnecessary delay will be allowed to take place in finishing all that yet remains to be done. On such an important question as an entire change of abode, and the abandonment of a locality occupied for so many years, and, as was truly said by a distinguished Fellow of our Society, associated with many hallowed names and reminiscences, it is impossible to expect complete unanimity of opinion, and there may be some among us who still doubt the propriety of the step which has been taken; but they will, I am sure, give those who have approved of the change credit for having been actuated solely by a sincere wish to promote the interests of Science and of this Society. I still entertain the sentiments on this subject which I took the liberty of expressing on two occasions when I addressed you from this Chair; indeed I am, if possible, more than ever persuaded that great and lasting benefit will accrue to Science from our removal to a site more accessible to the great majority of our Members, and from the other advantages which must follow in its train. It has been suggested, that the two Societies about to be associated with us, should for the future hold their meetings contemporaneously with those of the Royal Society; so that on those days on which the Linnean and Chemical Societies meet, their Members may be enabled to join us in friendly converse after the business of the evening has been concluded. I hope I am not too sanguine in anticipating great advantages from these assemblies of earnest cultivators of science, devoted followers of one of the most deeply interesting and important of all human pursuits, in a building not only adorned with the portraits of some of the most distinguished men who ever shed the lustre of their genius on the country which gave them birth, but containing on its walls, in convenient juxtaposition, three scientific libraries, the accumulated treasures of ages of un wearied research. It cannot be but that on such a spot, and in such society, even the diligent cultivator of science will be stimulated to greater exertions. Your Council have also adopted a measure which cannot fail to be productive of benefit to experimental philosophers. It is well known that on some occasions, when money has been voted by the Council, on the recommendation of the Government Grant Committee, for the purpose of aiding scientific researches, a part of such money has been expended on delicate apparatus, necessary for the purpose of performing the requisite experiments. It is proposed that all such instruments shall become vested in this Society for the benefit of the scientific public; and the Council hope to be enabled to set apart a room for their safe custody, and perhaps for the performance of experiments; thus in some measure reverting to the practice of ancient times; with this difference, that, whereas the apparatus of those days was necessarily primitive and rude, the Instrumental Museum about to be constituted will probably contain some of the choicest specimens of the workmanship of our most accomplished artisans. I cannot take leave of this subject without tendering our sincere thanks to Her Majesty's Government for providing us with so convenient and central an abode, a measure which will redound no less to the honour of those who conferred, than of those who received the valuable boon. I have before alluded to a Report of the Parliamentary Committee of the British Association, addressed to that Association at Glasgow in September 1855, in which were embodied opinions of certain eminent cultivators of Science on the question,-Whether any measures could be adopted by the Government or Parliament that would improve the position of Science or its cultivators in this country? The discussion of this important question by a Committee of the British Association at Glasgow, was followed by a motion in the House of Commons, during the last Session, by Mr. Heywood, in which he proposed that the question should be referred to a Committee of the House of Commons. The proposal was not entertained by the House; but in the discussion which took place, Lord Palmerston is understood to have expressed himself in terms from which it might be inferred that he would be willing to take into favourable consideration any proposal for the benefit of Science that should meet with the general approval of its most trustworthy representatives; and the matter was deferred till the ensuing Session of Parliament, with the view partly, it is believed, of permitting the question to be meanwhile maturely considered by scientific men. Under such circumstances, your Council conceived that the period was arrived in which the most ancient and venerable of all the Societies existing in this country for the cultivation of Science was called upon to take some steps for the purpose of eliciting the opinions of its most active Members on a question of such vital importance as that above referred to, and which seemed likely again to occupy the attention of the Legislature at no distant period; and accordingly, on the 11th of July last, they resolved,— "That it was expedient that the subject should receive the attention of the Council at an early period of the next Session, and that, as a preliminary step, its consideration should be referred to the Government Grant Committee." In pursuance of this resolution, the Government Grant Committee met, and appointed a Sub-committee, consisting of seven Members of their own Committee, together with your officers, to prepare a Report to them on the subject. That Sub-committee met on the 7th of October; and on this occasion they had before them the replies to two Circulars, requesting opinions on the above question, the one dated the 16th of July, and addressed by myself to the Members of the Government Grant Committee; the other dated the 20th of August, and addressed to the Members of the General Committee of the British Association by the Secretary of that Association, in pursuance of a resolution passed at Cheltenham on the 13th of August last. The Sub-committee were therefore in a very favourable position for considering the various important matters involved in the question on which they were summoned to deliberate; and they devoted two successive days to the consideration of their Report under circumstances peculiarly well adapted to elicit, by prolonged discussion, apart from the formality of ordinary meetings, the views and sentiments of individual Members. In my former Address I alluded to a proposal to constitute a new Board of Science, somewhat analogous in its functions to the late |