Presidential Address. 11 



cent. There remains an important venture to chronicle which, 

 I am glad to say, has proved justifiable. I refer to the publica- 

 tion by the Society of a book on Communion Tokens by one of its 

 members, the Rev. H. A. Whitelaw. It may be thought that in 

 doing so the Society has created a dangerous precedent, and I so 

 far agree in that I am sure that all similar publications in the 

 future should be carefully scrutinised by an able sub-committee of 

 our Society before being undertaken. Anissueof similar character 

 will shortly be published on the Dumfries Post Office, bv Mr J. 

 M. Corrie. We should welcome, this coming year, the fact that the 

 Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments is going 

 to commence operations in Dumfriesshire. It has already sur- 

 veyed Kirkcudbright, and many other counties in Scotland. 

 There are several of our members who are well qualified to help 

 the Commissioners in their work, and the names of Messrs 

 Barbour, Lennox, and Mackinnell particularly occur to me. Last 

 year I referred lo the proposed publication of a MS. History of 

 Dumfries. Mr R. C. Reid has, I am glad to say, been very 

 successful in getting subscribers to this, and I hope we may shortly 

 see his book on our bookshelves. Such, ladies and gentlemen, 

 is a very brief review of what has gone on during the past session, 

 and in ail the innovations and improvements I can see the hand of 

 our honorary secretary, Mr G. W. Shirley. Our secretaries in 

 the past have always been whole-hearted in their desire to pro- 

 mote the welfare of our Society, and, profiting by their good 

 example, Mr Shirley is proving himself to be as energetic as the 

 best of them. Our honorary treasurer continues to carrv on his 

 duties most scrupulously, and he would probably be only too glad 

 to have far larger funds to administer. AVhy should we hot try 

 to please him in this respect by each endeavouring to increase our 

 membership ? It is now^ only twelve months before we celebrate 

 the jubilee of our Society, and you will remember that a year ago 

 you remitted to a sub-committee to consider how this occasion 

 could most suitably be honoured. It has been decided — and, 

 in fact, steps have already been taken — to do so by publishing an 

 alphabetical index to all our past Transactions. This has 

 already proved, and will prove an even greater, labour to our 

 secretary. He, however, is impressed with the desirability of 

 such a work, and we trust that its publication will be acceptable 

 to a wider circle than that of our members. It is also hoped 



