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and within our memory, schools, asylums, institutes, hospitals, churches have been most thickly multiplied, still we cannot shut our eyes to the melancholy and mortifying fact that gross ignorance, fearful want, cruel suffering, unabashed profligacy, flagrant impiety, are still rife and rampant around us. A great source of comfort and hopefulness which seems to present itself in subordination to those vigorous agencies which guide the planets in their course, and men in their waywardness and darkness, is this, that at no previous period, I believe, in the history of the world has there been such a fixed desire and positive determination thoroughly to probe every wound, to bare every latent symptom, to dissect every complication, to throw light on every dark hole and corner, to discover all that is wrong, in order that we may see and know how to do all that is right. Hence it is that the condition of our poorhouses, our lunatic asylums, our hospitals, the social evil in our streets, the best mode of dealing with our convicts both within the prisons and without them, the agrarian assassin in one place, the stealthy garotter in another, questions of sewage and ventilation, the best mode of obtaining a supply of fresh air and pure water, the laws of population, the incidents of rent, the rate of wages, the preference to be given to agriculture or pasture-all these varied and multiplied questions are receiving such intelligent, such zealous, and, above all, searching investigation. Well, then, Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe that this Society faithfully reflects one of the leading and most wholesome influences of the age in which we live. On this account I wish it all success; and I trust that in its proper sphere and range it may contribute its efforts so to deal with the knotty and tangled past and present, as to add powerfully to the light and lustre of the future.

PUBLIC LECTURES.

ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR CAIRNS, ON THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, AT THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.

WHEN

[OCTOBER 30TH, 1862.]

WHEN the Lecturer concluded, the EARL OF CARLISLE said:

MY LORD BISHOP, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN,

I assure you I have felt great pleasure in having found myself able to attend at the opening of another winter session of this flourishing and valuable institution; and I gladly discharge the honourable office which has been upon former occasions assigned to me, of asking all present to join with me in a cordial vote of thanks to the accomplished Lecturer, for his most able and eloquent address. It is not the first time of my becoming acquainted with Professor Cairns. I remember that I first heard him some years ago discussing, with singular clearness and ability, some very knotty points of political economy, at the meeting of the British Association within the walls of Trinity College; and what I heard from him, and of him, made me exceedingly glad when I had the opportunity of conferring upon him the vacant chair at the Queen's College, Galway. With respect to the Lecture which we have just heard with such gratified attention, I believe that the subject, especially at the present moment, is second to none in importance and delicacy; and the light in which Professor Cairns has presented it does not in any way detract from its importance, or the responsibility of those who have to deal with it. It perhaps had a more intimate interest for me, inasmuch as I have myself visited the great American continent, and have become familiar with many of the actual battle grounds and scenes of conflict. The broad Potomac, the winding James, the gentle Ohio, the brimming Mississippi, still glide before my memory with all their distinctive features. Most shocking, indeed, it is to me when I reflect that all this wealth of waters formed by the Almighty to fertilize the earth, and blend its myriad families, of late should only have wafted the instruments of mutual torture; and that those endless slopes of

waving verdure on which I have gazed with such fond admiration should have been reddened with the blood of fellow-countrymen and kinsmen-their own kinsmen and ours. I feel that I shall best fall in with that, as it appears to me, wise principle of neutrality which the Government to which I have the high honour to belong, backed I believe by the general sense of the people, have hitherto maintained through these distressing conflicts; and I am sure that, maintaining that principle, and not presuming to express any opinion myself upon the respective merits of the conflicting parties, I yet shall be giving vent to the wish which must pervade every Christian assemblage, when I express a hope that, under the overruling shapings of Divine Providence, more moderate counsels and a milder spirit may for the future prevail— that slavery may loosen its hideous grasp, and peace resume its blessed sway. I beg to move that the cordial thanks of this meeting be given to Professor Cairns for his most able and eloquent address.

ROYAL HIBERNIAN MILITARY SCHOOL,

PHOENIX PARK.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE "CRIMEAN BANQUET FUND" PRIZES.

[DECEMBER 22ND, 1863.]

WHEN

HEN the Prizes had been distributed, the EARL OF CARLISLE
said:-

SIR GEORGE BROWN, COLONEL WYNYARD, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN,
AND ESPECIALLY MY YOUNG FRIENDS HERE,

I believe you will all be aware, and even the youngest among you as well as the others, what sincere pleasure it gives me on all occasions to come within these walls, and to be present, whether it is as a spectator of your summer sports,-when you assault a New Zealand pah, or make an attack even on the Imperial Throne of the Emperor of China,—or at a more serious moment to assist in the distribution of these annual Prizes, and, above all, to hear of your proficiency in your studies; or,

still more, that your general conduct and character have merited the approbation of your superiors. Indeed, if I could change ages with any one of you, and put my gray hairs under one of your light caps, I do not know where I could find a person under whose governance I should like more to be placed than that of your excellent principal, Colonel Wynyard; and I know that he is assisted in his conscientious works of love by many others who co-operate with him in carrying on so successfully the affairs of this institution. I may mention my friend Major Speedy, and the other gentlemen associated with him; and, amongst others, your excellent head master, Mr. Gibbons, than whom I never met a more able or competent one. What I am anxious, therefore, for is, that you should none of you neglect the golden opportunities which are here placed within your reach; but that you should, by your orderly behaviour, by your docility and obedience to your superiors, by your cheerful good humour amongst each other, by your diligent attention to your studies, and by the cultivation of real earnest religion, make those hours of youth now vouchsafed to you sweet to look back upon, and thus leave the best foundation for your future comfort, credit, and honour in life. You see before you in the front forms the former pupils of this institution: what good specimens of British soldiers you may all one day hope to be, if you will follow their good example! I have been gratified at hearing the announcement made by Colonel Wynyard respecting the completion of the arrangement by which we hope that noble institution left by Alderman Drummond will be made available for those in whom I am sure you all feel the liveliest and the most affectionate interest, and many of whom are the sisters of your own homes. The State, which is perhaps a convenient form of using an expression when nobody may particularly like to take the responsibility, has not seen its way to make an addition to that generous bequest; but it all the more, therefore, devolves on individuals to supply what the State cannot do, according to their opportunity to follow so beneficent and generous an example. I have told you that it gives me great pleasure to come among you on these anniversaries, as well as on all other occasions; and I am reminded by the inscriptions around the room that though it may not be your lot-and as a man of peace, I hope it will not be your lot ever to be called on to scale such ridges as the Alma, under so brave a leader as my friend Sir George Brown, or to join in so desperate a charge as that of Balaklava, or to bear the brunt of such a fierce stand-up

fight as that of Inkerman, yet you will all have opportunities, if you do not neglect them, of proving yourselves in the future life on which, when you leave these walls, you will have to enter, that you can acquit yourselves as good soldiers, good citizens, and good Christians. I have no more to say to you than to wish very cordially that you may all bear an honourable part in the common life in which we have all to discharge our several duties; and that you may have reason to look back with pleasure and gratitude to the time spent within the walls of the Royal Hibernian Military School.

L

SOCIAL SCIENCE.

FIFTH CONGRESS OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE
PROMOTION OF SOCIAL SCIENCE.

[AUGUST 14TH, 1861.]

ORD BROUGHAM, the President of the Association, having delivered the opening address,

The EARL OF CARLISLE said :

MY LORD BROUGHAM, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN,

I have not risen with the presumptuous intention of pointing out or pourtraying the various merits of that full, able, and eloquent address to which we have just had the pleasure and privilege of listening. Its rich copiousness of topics belongs to the several departments of inquiry now about to be opened in this present meeting. The eminent and enlightened men who constitute those sections will bring to that address all the discriminating attention which its importance so amply deserves. But about the author of that address,-the renowned President of our Social Congress, though he has himself given me warning that panegyrics are not popular, yet I may be permitted to say what shall nevertheless be a very few words. These words, indeed, might be many, if they endeavoured to follow the brilliant track of his lengthened career, or to sum up the diversified list of his powers, and the thick amount of his achievements. I will not rekindle the ashes of any ancient controversy, nor run the risk of awakening the sparks of new ones. I will not utter even one of those breathing and burning words which have

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