resigning my honours into more efficient hands, 

 I shall at least be entitled to your approbation for 

 having at all times manifested an anxious desire 

 to promote, by the best means in my power, the 

 interests and success of the Institution. 



Seven years have now elapsed since the Society 

 was established, and it is highly pleasing to con- 

 template the progress it has made during that 

 period, and the rank it already holds in the esti- 

 mation of numerous similar associations, which 

 have been recently formed in the county of York, 

 as well as in other parts of the kingdom. Of the 

 utility of Societies like ours, it is now too late to 

 entertain a doubt ; the concurrent judgment 

 of the most gifted and the best educated men 

 throughout the country having pronounced an 

 irrevocable sentence in their favour, evidenced 

 by the fact of their having joined, and by their 

 talents contributed to support the credit and value 

 of, such Institutions. Our time this evening may 

 not be unprofitably or unsatisfactorily spent, if we 

 devote it to an investigation of the means which 

 we possess among ourselves of maintaining the 

 character of our Institution, and promoting its 

 legitimate objects. The primary inquiry must 

 necessarily be, does the town of Hull possess 

 sufficient talent to support the respectability of a 

 Society like ours ? 



Should the result of this inquiry be such as to 



