I may, I hope not inappropriately, begin by recalling a story told by our Chairman's distinguished predecessor, Sir William Anson, about Mr. Gladstone. While he was out of office, in 1890 Mr. Gladstone accepted an invitation to visit All Souls. The invitation included a request that he would give some kind of an address to the members of the Union Society, which had been the scene of his triumphs as an undergraduate sixty years ago. He agreed to do so and in a discussion with his host, the Warden of All Souls, as to a choice of subject Mr. Gladstone said that the subject did not very much matter provided it was one of general interest. He was thereupon persuaded to choose his own topic, and in due course he gave an eloquent address to a large undergraduate audience on ‘The Connexion of Homer with recent Assyriological Discovery’.