108 ANNUAL MEETINa, 



bargain ^as made, however, the Society has expended, from the 

 funds drawn from its Fellows, a sum of nearly £20,000 beyond 

 what has been borrowed, on permanent improvements to the 

 Garden. In July, 1859, when the loan was brought out, the 

 number of Fellows was only 989; now it is S774. It therefore 

 appeared to the Council that the time was come at which they 

 might propose to the debenture holders either to pay them off, 

 or to reduce the rate of interest to 4 per cent. Four-fifths havo 

 consented to the reduction, many of them handsomely signify- 

 ing their approval of the step. The remaining fifth has been 

 paid off, by transferring the bonds to fresh applicants. 



The Capital Account shows the sums that have been actually 

 paid for the works in the Garden ; and in the Account of Assets 

 and Liabilities will be found the additional sums incurred or 

 expected to he due. A portion of the expense of the ^vorliS is 

 not payable until twelve months after their execution. 



That part of the Garden works the execution of which falls 

 upon the Society is nearly completed. The conservatory, the 

 council-room, the terraces, the various terrace-steps, and terrace- 

 walls, the baud-houses, the basins and canals, the Artesian well 

 and water-works, the laying out of the garden, are all finished or 

 far advanced. The portico leading from the council-room into the 

 Garden, and the space adjoining it, has still to be plastered and 

 finished. The walks are not so finely gravelled as is intended. 

 Some n^inor works originally contemplated are still kept in view, 

 and probably some addition may be made to the water- works. 

 But of the actual works contemplated with the present means of 

 the Society, the whole may be said to be very nearly completed. 

 Those undertaken by the Commissioners of 1851^re not in so 

 advanced a state. The decorations, both external and internal, of 

 the Arcades are in a different position from others, and will pro- 

 bably be the work of years. The decorations of the Garden arc 

 in the same categoiy, with this advantage, that in their case 

 independent loans and gifts can be received, while any gift that 

 can be made to the embellishment of the Arcades must be specially 

 adapted to those buildings, and must take the sliape of a work to 

 be executed upon them or fitted into them- The Society has 

 already felt the benefit of these two sources of embellishment 

 Various works of art lent to the Society will be found decorating 

 the Garden, and some of the objects intended for the Inter- 

 national Exhibition will fend their way into its precincts. Others 

 of a higher class have been presented to the Society, among 



