LINNEAN SOCIKTT OF LONDON. 29 



in person to sign tlieir obligation to the Society and liave been 

 duly admitted. 



The consideration of this difficulty brings us naturally to the last 

 matter we need consider to-daj' — ' The Payments to be made by 

 the Fellows,' Following the order of our bye-laws on this subjeet, 

 we may begin with the Statute relative to the ' Admission Fee' 

 winch becomes due on election and must be paid before admission 

 by every Fellow, unless by Special Order the Council have remitted 

 that fee in whole or in ])art. The authority thus given to our 

 Council we know by experience to be most conducive to tlie higher 

 interests of the Society. We must therefore endeavour, at all 

 costs, to leave this satisfactory bye-law relating to payments in its 

 present form. 



The regulations we have prescribed as regards the payment of 

 ' Annual Contributions ' are not so well adapted as we could wish 

 to meet our pi'esent needs. Our actual order enjoins that, before 

 admission, every Fellow shall pay his fii'st annual contribution, 

 and shall pay the like sum annually in advance on each succeeding 

 24th day of May so long as he shall continue a Fellow. AVe are 

 to be congratulated on the possession of so explicit a bye-law. 

 We are further to be congratulated on the fact that the habit of 

 ignoring this bye-law is less prevalent than that of neglecting our 

 order requiring elected Fellows to attend in person for admission. 

 The explanation may be that we do in this case prescribe a penalty 

 for non-compliance with the order. After a long and painful 

 process we actually summon up sufficient courage to enforce that 

 penalty. We cannot, however, congratulate ourselves with regard 

 to that process. A Fellow must have failed on three succeeding 

 Anniversar)'^ days to pay his annual contribution ere we permit 

 our Council to post his default. Even then we insist that a further 

 interval shall elapse before Council can order the removal of the 

 name of the defaulter from the List of the Society. 



This regulation is obviously ill-adapted to meet tlie case of the 

 Fellow who has fallen into arrear through oversight. An inad- 

 vertent defaulter will ordinarily pay a forgotten amnial contribution 

 as readily, and more cheerfully, if his name be posted at once. 

 AV^e cannot expect him to thank us for permitting his arrears to 

 run on till he owes the Society three contributions. Our want of 

 consideration for the purely casual defaulter is, perhaps, the best 

 proof that our procedure is dictated by consideration for cases of 

 default due to some other cause. Now, there can only be two 

 kinds of default other than the purely inadvertent : default by 

 those who do not desire, and default by those who cannot manage, 

 to meet their obligation. In neither case does our procedure 

 bring benefit to the Society or assistance to a Fellow. In the one 

 case it engenders irritation, in the other it creates embarrassment. 

 AV^e tacitly admit that, so far as concerns those who are un- 

 willing to pay, our procedure is disadvantageous to the Society. 



