28 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
and which I believe was done ina great measure through mis- 
appreliension, because I think it very materially interferes with 
our usefulness. One great purpose of a society like ours is to 
bring as many persons as possible within the range of our 
efforts, and of the objects we pursue, so as to beget in as many 
minds as we can influence, a taste for those sciences, for the pro- 
motion of which, among other things, our Club was established. 
Now to limit our numbers is surely to limit our efforts in the 
prosecution of the objects we have in view, and to cut us off 
from the opportunity of drawing many others into that circle, 
within which we hope we have ourselves been of some use. I 
have no doubt that from the large and increasing numbers of 
our body, some difficulty in management has occurred, but I 
think this is an evil not without a remedy, and at all events, we 
should not stop short, until the working has been found not only 
difficult but impossible, an event which I do not anticipate as 
ever being likely to occur. With our increased numbers our 
funds have necessarily proportionately increased, and a certain 
sun might be set aside to pay some subordinate official, who 
might, under the guidance of our honorary secretaries, relieve 
them of the burden of a large correspondence, and other routine 
work. It is not generally desirable, of course, to alter a funda- 
mental rule hastily, and so shortly after it has been brought into 
operation, but in this case I hope that the change may be made 
as speedily as possible, for I would not willingly see a single 
person kept back from joining our ranks. 
A second matter to which I think the attention of the com- 
mittee should be drawn, is the necessity of varying, as much as 
may be, our places of meeting. We have too much fallen into 
a regular groove as to the places we visit, and perhaps it was not 
easily avoided a year or two ago, but we have now got more than 
one new line of railway into operation, opening out interesting 
and fresh fields of investigation, and we should avail ourselves at 
once of these additional routes. North Tyne and the borders of 
Scotland, full of subjects of enquiry and objects of beauty, are now | 
brought within an easy distance by the Border Counties’ Rail- 
way, and we have also gained access to the district which lies to 
