COUNCIL FOR 1848. 15 



During the meeting of the Koyal Agricultural Society in 

 York, the Museum was honoured by a visit from His Royal 

 Highness Prince Albert, who minutely inspected the Cabinets 

 of Natural History and the Collection of Antiquities, and who 

 was pleased to express his approbation of the condition in 

 which he found them. 



The great influx of visitors on that occasion, and the num- 

 ber of excursion trains during the summer, have caused the 

 Museum and Grounds to be visited by a larger number of 

 Strangers during the past than in any former year, and aug- 

 mented the receipts at the gate beyond any previous experience. 

 The state of the Society's finances will show how important it 

 is to preserve, undiminished, this source of its income. 



The Council have received, with regret, a letter from Robert 

 Davies, Esq., announcing his desire to resign the office of Trea- 

 surer, which he has held during a period of eleven years, to the 

 great benefit of the Society. As a mark of the high respect 

 with which the valuable services of Mr. Davies are universally 

 regarded, the Meeting will no doubt gladly accept the proposal 

 of the Council to elect him a Vice-President of the Society for 

 the ensuing year. 



The attention of the Council having frequently been called to 

 an abuse which existed, in the unhmited distribution of Orders 

 for the gratuitous admission of strangers to the Museum, a 

 Special Meeting of the Society was summoned to consider the 

 best means of remedying the evil. The result of this appeal 

 was the unanimous resolution of a very numerous meeting, that 

 Members shall be allowed to issue twenty-five orders annually, 

 each order not admitting more than four persons ; and it is 

 gratifying to the Council to find, that as far as the system has 

 been tried, it promises in its results to be highly beneficial 

 to the Society. The resolutions passed at that meeting will be 

 found appended to this report. 



The proceeds of the Swimming Bath have not quite^equalled 

 those of the two previous years, a circumstance entirely attri- 

 butable to the unfavourable weather during the summer months. 

 A small expense has been found necessary in the dwelling- 

 house appropriated to the bath keeper. 



