Opening Address, Session 1857–58

Extract

On this annual occasion of resuming the Ordinary Meetings of the Royal Society, it becomes us, as almost a duty which we owe to science, and to our country, whose science we in some measure represent, that we should review what has been done by the Society during the past year, to merit the position which it holds in public opinion, and the title which it pre-eminently enjoys.

I believe it may be allowed me to congratulate you on the result of such a retrospect of your proceedings. We cannot, indeed, boast of any great or prominent discovery in the physical or natural sciences having been first announced during last Session in this Hall, or first given to the world in our Transactions for that period. But in truth, the past year has been nowhere, to my knowledge, marked by any such event in any country.