Some Of You Are Aware That A Distinguished Member Of An Assembly To Which You And I, Lord Rayleigh, Have Both The Honour To Belong, Has Lately Been Cautioning The English Public Against The Dangers Of Legislation By Picnic.

(Loud applause.) I have heard that in some quarters misgivings have been expressed.

We too should be exposed to similar danger, and lest the attractions which the British Association is offered here should conflict with its more strictly scientific objects. These are probably _rumores senum severiorum_, and I will only say of them, if there is any ground for such apprehensions, you must remember that hospitality is an instinct with our people, and that it is their desire that you should see and learn a great deal, and that you should see and learn it in the pleasantest manner possible. (Applause.) I have only one word more to say. I wish to express the pleasure with which I see in this room representatives, not only of English and Continental and Canadian science, but also many distinguished representatives of that great people which, at a time when the relations of the mother country and her colonies were less wisely regulated than at present, ceased to be subjects of the British Crown, but did not cease to become our kinsmen. Many of you will pass from these meetings to the great re-union to be held a few days hence at Philadelphia, where you will be again reminded that there are ties which bind together not only the constituent parts of the British empire, but the whole of the British race - ties of mutual sympathy and good-will which such intercourse will strengthen and which, I believe, each succeeding decade will draw more closely and firmly together.

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