137 



elementary principles of the sciences might be systematically 

 taught. Our club could, I believe, furnish persons both able 

 and willing to conduct classes in mathematics and physical 

 science, in physical geography, chemistry, geology and botany. 

 Membership in any section might be made dependent on passing 

 a preliminary examination of a very simple character. I would 

 not debar any member of the Club from attending any sectional 

 meeting he chose, but membership giving the right to take par't 

 in the dehberations and to vote, should be restricted to the 

 initiated. For these meetings and classes separate rooms are 

 indispensable. At present the club is homeless. 



We owe much to the Town Council for the generous and 

 hearty manner in which they have granted us permission to 

 occupy their chamber. But, convenient as this room is for our 

 meetings, we need, in addition to it, one or more compartments 

 where a class, a sectional, or committee meeting could be held 

 at any time, and which might also serve as a place of safe 

 deposit for apparatus or other property belonging to the Club. 

 My idea is that a site should be selected and obtained as early 

 as possible, in a central locality, though not necessarily in a main 

 street, sufficiently large to admit of the erection of a building 

 capable of seating 1,000 persons, and of a series of class-rooms 

 around it. The suite of buildings, when completed, would com- 

 prise this central apartment suitable alike for a lecture-room, a 

 concert hall, or exhibition building. Outside, and surrounding this 

 central hall should run a corridor opening into class-rooms, some 

 of which might be used for meetings of sections. Above these 

 should be another corridor and series of rooms, communicating 

 with a gallery running round the central hall, and having a 

 flight of steps at each corner to admit of ready access to every 

 part of the premises. 



The remainder of the paper was the sketching out of a plan by 

 which the cost of this erection could be provided for. The chief 

 poults of it were : — 



(1) An increased entrance-fee shall be charged. 



(2) Donations should be sohcited. 



(3) Exhibitions should be held. 



(4) Lectures by outsiders of eminence should be deUvered. 

 The conversation that followed was directed mainly to the 



desirableness of admitting ladies as members, of establishing a 

 free library, and of selecting a central site for the erection of a 

 building. 



