XX11 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



The only drawback to the satisfaction which we must feel at the 

 utility and advantages on which I have been dwelling, is the con- 

 siderable expense which, in its outset, must necessarily be in- 

 curred ; and on this subject I cannot but observe, that without 

 some such relief from our present expenditure as we have been 

 hopefully anticipating, from a prospect of house-accommodation to 

 which I shall presently more particularly ask your attention, I 

 cannot see how the expenses of the Journal are to be met, unless 

 the advantages which its free distribution involves should prove a 

 sufficient stimulus to many naturalists to enter the Society. I 

 have, however, one circumstance to state, which is, so far as it 

 goes, encouraging, and that is, that when the whole expenses of 

 the Journal, as far as it is now published, are paid, the balance of 

 our annual receipts and expenditure, small though it be, is in 

 favour of the Society. 



This result was not, I believe, anticipated ; on the contrary, 

 it was fully expected that we should have had to call for ex- 

 tensive assistance for the issue of even the first part. I should 

 not, perhaps, have thought it necessary to advert at all to the state 

 of the finances but for this circumstance, as the statement of the 

 income and expenditure is now before you ; but as I have referred 

 to the subject, I cannot but congratulate the Society upon the 

 favourable results of the audit, and especially on the large sum 

 which appears in the item of admission-fees, and the small com- 

 parative number of new compositions. The latter source of in- 

 come has a good temporary appearance on our books ; but when 

 it is recollected that the average term of membership is thirty-six 

 years, the annual subscription is obviously the more advantageous 

 to the Society. 



I have sometimes thought, that, constituted as we are, and with 

 aims and objects so noble, we have perhaps too much restricted 

 our labours to the conventional routine of our meetings and the 

 publication of our Transactions. I hope I shall not be misunder- 

 stood here. I should be the last to ask for, or to sanction any, 

 even the slightest encroachment upon those long and wisely 

 established means* of carrying out our objects. But there may be 

 other methods of usefulness, by which our sphere of operation 

 may be enlarged, by more extensive association with the outer 

 world, if I may so speak, and by becoming the centre of the 

 interests of Natural History throughout the country. And on re- 

 flecting upon the various directions in which the Linnean Society 



