LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 3 1 



The most serious aspect of any instauce in our liistory of the 

 removal of a non-resident Fellow on account of arrears is the 

 gravity of its reflection upon ourselves. It proves that we have 

 been as unmindful of our duty as regards the enforcement of an 

 order of our own as to ' Payments to be made by Fellows,' as we 

 have already found ourselves to be in respect of our bye-law as to 

 ' Admission/ 



If we be prepared in future to fulfil our own duty towards the 

 Society it is clear that cases of arrears must be confined to 

 resident Fellows. Hereafter, as hithei'to, Fellows in arrear must 

 fall into one or other of two categories. Either they will be 

 Fellows who have explained in writing beforehand to one of the 

 officers of the Society the circumstances that are to prevent them 

 from paying their annual contribution on the next ensuing 24th 

 day of May, or they will be Fellows who iuive failed to make such 

 au intimation. We may deal with the latter category first. 



In the case of any Fellow who has failed to pay his annual 

 contribution in advance on Anniversary day and has sent no in- 

 timation on the subject beforehand, all that seems to be necessary 

 is to send to that Fellow, before 31 May, a formal request to 

 remedy the omission. Should the contribution thus due remain 

 unpiiid on 31 August the name of the Fellow in arrear must 

 automatically disappear from the 'List of the Society' issued in 

 November of the year in whicli default takes place. But if the 

 Fellow whose name must thns be deleted has, prior to the date on 

 which default fakes place, been duly admitted to the Society, he 

 ought to be regarded as suspended from Fellowship, not as 

 removed from the Society. 



The penalty involved will be sufficiently severe. A vacancy 

 caused by the suspension of any duly elected Fellow will enable 

 the election of a new candidate in his place at the next ensuing 

 day of election. This, however, should not deprive any duly 

 admitted Fello\v whose name is thus suspended of the right to 

 beg for reinstatement. Council should be given authority to deal 

 with such an application. If there be proof (a) that the suspended 

 Fellow was duly admitted before suspension, (b) that the arrears to 

 which his suspension was due have l)een duly paid, (c) that he has, 

 in addition, paid all the annual contributions due in respect of the 

 whole period of his suspension, a7id [d) has provided satisfactory 

 security — say an order on his bankers — for the payment of future 

 annual contributions, Council might have power, if they should 

 think fit, to reinstate the name of the applicant in the ' List of the 

 Society ' on the first occasion on which a permanent vacancy in 

 the Society may take place. A duly admitted Fellow who has 

 been suspended but who has applied for reinstatement and has 

 paid in advance the annual contributions due from non-suspended 

 Fellows should, notwithstanding his suspension, continue to 

 receive the publications of the Society and be entitled to attend 

 ordinary meetings. But so long as his suspension lasts he should 

 not have liberty to vote at any meeting or election. On being 



