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away, but been usefully bestowed ; for by accepting the offer of the 
Town Council they would acquire a status in Brighton which they had 
not hitherto occupied, and which no other Society had ever occupied, 
namely a public recognition by the authorities. 
_ There were sundry reasons why they should accept the offer. The 
room suggested for their use would afford them more than double the 
space they had at the present time. In the room in which they were met 
not many more than thirty persons could be comfortably seated ; in the 
Curator’s Room at the Library, above one hundred could be similarly 
accommodated. Then their library, which had been increasing so 
enormously, in the hands of their kind friend, Mr. Gwatkin, would also 
find a place at the Museum ; and this was of great moment, for it was 
but a question of time when their library would outgrow the capacity 
of Mr. Gwatkin’s territory, and require to be removed, and this could 
not be done under more advantageous circumstances than the present. 
It would be taken in charge by the representative of the town 
authorities in the person of the Curator, and, though their books 
might not be more secure, yet the members having them out would 
be more strictly looked after. 
Another great convenience would be afforded by the use of the 
__ reading-room, particularly in the case of those who felt a delicacy in turn- 
ing Mr. Gwatkin’s territory into a reference-room. Some might urge that 
the books, when taken out by indiscriminate readers, would possibly get 
- more or less damaged ; but to that objection he would say, that the 
books were not allowed to go out of the Library except in the posses- 
sion of members of the Society, and the town officials, he knew, 
looked very sharply after their own books, and they would look with 
equal sharpness after the Society’s. One other consequence might be, 
that the books, being only available for reading by non-members in 
the rooms, many would be induced to.join the Society that they might 
be enabled to take the books home with them. 
Again, it might be urged that the Society had not yet been at any 
cost for book cases, and that a considerable expense would have to be 
encountered for such. Well, that would be a necessary expense, and the 
Society was quite able to sustain it, and the Committee would see that 
_ suitable and proper cases were procured. He was reminded by Mr. G. 
Scott that it was understood by him that, if their meetings should be so 
large as to overflow the accommodation of the Curator’s Room, the 
