The subject of the address with which I am to open the present session of the Royal Society has been announced in your notices as the ‘Dawn of the Constitutional Principle.” Such, indeed, was the general tenor or complexion of the thoughts which led me into the field of inquiry on which I intend to dwell to-night, and such the topic round which I propose to weave a very fragmentary and imperfect excursus or dissertation. I had long thought that the rise and growth of the constitutional principle in this island,—a plant nurtured in many storms and watered by the best blood of the land,—might be worth tracing in these more stable and peaceful times. It might also be interesting to recall the gradual progress and direction of opinion in the two ends of the island, and of the conflict or concord out of which so powerful and thorough a fabric has been consolidated. But my theme to-night is necessarily less ambitious than its title indicates. I am limited both by the place in which and the audience to which I speak, and also by the time which it would be reasonable for me to occupy.