Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 4.djvu/110

Rh Re-elected.

Hay, Colonel Andrew Leith. | Lowe. George, Esq.

It was stated that the report of the death of R. Z. Mudge, Capt.

R..E., noticed at the last Anniversary, has been since found to be erroneous.

The following Address of His Royal Highness the President was read from the Chair :

Gentlemen,

I CANNOT quit the Chair of the Royal Society, which I have now occupied during a period of eight years, without availing myself of the opportunity which the customaiy proceedings of the Anniver- sary afford me, of expressing to you the grateful sense I entertain of the great honour conferred upon me, by being chosen to fill so distinguished an office, as likewise of the uniform kindness and support which I have always received from the Members of the Council and the Fellows of the Society generally, in the discharge of its various and important duties.

A review of my conduct during the period of my Presidency, re- calls to my mind many occasions in which I am sensible that I have been more or less wanting in the very responsible trust confided to me, of watching over the interests of a Society most justly illustrious by the succession of great men' who ha^"e been connected with it and by the great advances which nearly every department of science has received from those portions of their labours which are recorded in its Transactions ; for some of these deficiencies I am unfortunately enabled to refer to the severe and long continued visitations of dis- ease and infirmity under which I have laboured, as a very sufficient apology ; and I feel less oppressed than I othei-^ ise should have been, by my consciousness of many others, by my knowledge of the ac- tivity and zeal of the very able and efficient officers upon whom the temporary discharge of my duties devolved, and from the assurance which I felt, that the interests of the Society, when entrusted to their care, would suff'er no detriment by my absence.

Though justly proud of the distinction of presiding over the Royal Society, and most anxious to promote, to the utmost of my power, the great objects for which it was founded, I no sooner ascer- tained that circumstances would probably, for a time, interfere with my residence in London, during a considerable part of its An- nual Session, and prevent my receiving its ^Members in a manner compatible with my rank and position in this country, than I deter- mined to retire from an office whose duties I could no longer flatter myself as likely to be able to discharge in a manner answerable to their expectations, or in accordance with my own feelings. Ha^-ing come to this conclusion after the most anxious and painful consi- deration, I deemed it due to the ^Members of the Council, in the first instance, and next to the Fellows, to make it speedily and generally