110 BULLETIN OF THE ESSEX INSTITUTE. 



our receiving pretty promptly a considerable amount of 

 pecuniary help. Future administrations of the Institute 

 will he prepared to put the legacies which are to enrich 

 them to the best of uses ; but the present administration 

 is wholly unable to see how the future which should be 

 ours can be secured except through efforts made at once 

 to increase our means, and to enlarge our space, and to 

 add to our corps of paid assistants. Its present officers 

 are ready to bear the burthen so far as they can, but 

 what they can do is a fraction of what ought to be done. 

 The work keeps steadily growing, and at times they find 

 themselves so unequal to the demand that the day cannot 

 be distant when they must be largely reinforced or the 

 Institute must be content to accomplish less. If such a 

 grand activity as ours is to be longer crippled for want of 

 funds, let it not be said that this is because its officers 

 have failed to make known their needs. It is fair to say 

 that well-wishers of the Institute must not expect to see 

 it thrive much longer as now equipped. It is fair to say 

 that the amount of volunteer effort expended in the past 

 two years in keeping the Institute up to its present stan- 

 dard cannot be relied upon much further unless there is a 

 speedy prospect of substantial relief. Contributors who 

 entrust us with valuable manuscripts and relics will not long 

 be satisfied, when they ask to see their treasures, to be 

 told that we have them safe somewhere but they cannot 

 be found. The theological student, attracted to us by 

 our rare collection of books of interest and value to the 

 ministry, will not long be satisfied, when he demands 

 the daily u.«e of them, as did my late predecessor in the 

 Chair, the Rev. Mr. Willson, to be told that they are 

 amongst the numerous volumes boxed up and stored in 

 a warehouse for utter lack of room. The Smithsonian 

 Institution at Washington, for years of incalculable value 



