4! REPORT OF 



not been discharged by the Society ; and it appears desirable 

 that these arrangements should be put upon a more satisfac- 

 tory footing. 



The value of such an establishment in fostering and dif- 

 fusing a taste for astronomical researches, was exemplified in 

 two instructive lectures on Cometary Astronomy delivered to 

 the Society by Mr. Newman ; and the Council confidently 

 anticipates from the zeal and information of several of the 

 Members of the Society, a succession of instructive discourses 

 on this and other branches of science during the next session> 

 It has been the wish, both of the Council and of the gentle- 

 men alluded to, that the admission to these lectures should 

 be gratuitous, at least to Members of the Society ; it has 

 however been suggested that the opportunity should not be 

 lost, of endeavouring by such means to provide funds for the 

 liquidation of the observatory debt, should this Meeting not 

 think it proper to direct the immediate settlement of that 

 account, and to become the rightful and real possessors of 

 the edifice and the valuable instruments which it now contains, 

 and may hereafter receive by private liberality. * 



% During the week of the Musical Festival, which took place 

 in September, it was thought advisable to adopt every means 

 of rendering the Museum and gardens accessible to the nu- 

 merous and respectable strangers then assembled in York ; 

 but as an indiscriminate admission within its gates appeared 

 wholly incompatible with quiet and good order, and inconsis- 

 tent with the general spirit of the Institution, Tickets were 

 prepared, at a small price, for the use of those persons who 

 failed to provide themselves with the regular introduction of a 

 Member. About one thousand persons testified, by the pur- 

 chase of these tickets, their sense of the convenience of the 

 arrangement ; and thus without in the smallest degree in- 



* It was resolved by the Annual Meeting that the debt on the 

 Observatory should be discharged out of the Society's funds. 



