10 REPORT OF 



State of the Museum and the expectations of the contributors 

 so imperiously demand. But such a state of inaction would 

 be a virtual abandonment of all the objects which have been 

 so warmly cherished and so successfully prosecuted, and 

 repugnant to the spirit of the Institution. If the Society 

 had been accustomed to rely entirely or chiefly on its own 

 pecuniary resources for the storing of its Museum, if its 

 objects were confined within a narrow sphere, and no particular 

 interest were felt in its prosperity beyond the neighbourhood 

 of its establishment, it might remain in a state of languor, 

 without exciting general disappointment ; it would have only 

 to abstain from fresh purchases, and to make the best use it 

 could of what it already possessed. But such is not the 

 character or the condition of this Society. It is, as its first 

 excellent President has emphatically and justly described it, 

 a County Institution, destined for active and increasing 

 exertion. Its objects are most comprehensive ; and with these 

 the interest excited in its welfare is fully commensurate. For 

 the rich treasures of its Museum, it is indebted almost 

 entirely to the zeal and liberality of its Members and its 

 friends : what it has received is only an earnest of much more 

 to come. As its various collections increase, and their value 

 and importance in aiding the pursuit of science are more 

 generally experienced, the zeal and liberality of contributors 

 will increase in proportion, and nothing can check them but 

 the inabihty of the Society to provide proper receptacles for 

 the contributions poured in upon it, not only from the County 

 of York, but from the most distant regions of the globe, and 

 to dispose of them in such a manner as shall secure the 

 attainment of the end for which they are bestowed. To that 

 inability, which cannot but prove highly detrimental, the In- 

 stitution will be reduced, if the difficulties under which it now 

 labours be not removed. Under this conviction, the Council 

 earnestly call upon the Annual Meeting to adopt such means 

 as may appear most advisable for immediately diminishing that 



