lU 



expected that those who are desirous of being enrolled in its ranks should 

 be called upon to pay for what is in truth no barren honour. 



It may be urged that the adoption of this rule would have the eiFect of 

 checking the growth of the Club. And though I do not believe that such 

 would be its effect — at least to any injurious extent — I should not be 

 disposed to object to the exercise of a modifying influence in restricting 

 somewhat a growth which has been of late very rapid, and which threatens 

 unless a limit be put to our undue expansion, to create at no distant time 

 an amount of business too great for an unpaid and unassisted secretary to 

 perform. On that account, therefore, I am prepared to recommend that 

 our numbers should not at any time be permitted to exceed 100 — a limit 

 amply suflScient to keep our ranks open to the working Naturalists of the 

 County, and to protect us against the charge of exclusiveness, while for all 

 practical purposes it would be sufficiently manageable. 



It will be remembered that when three years ago you did me the honor 

 to place me in the distinguished position which I have since held as your 

 president, I found the Club in some respects an exclusive body, limited to 

 40 in number. This had its advantages and its disadvantages, — the prin- 

 cipal advantage being that a small body was more easy to work than a 

 large one. But this comparatively unimportant benefit was more than 

 counter-balanced by the evil tendency inherent in so limited a society — a 

 tendency to an exclusiveness, which, possibly useful in the earlier stages of 

 association when enthusiasm is fresh and work new, has in process of time, 

 as these stimulants become weaker, a tendency to produce languor and 

 decay of interest, which in our case manifested itself in slackness of attend- 

 ance at the meetings of the Club, accompanied by an almost total cessation 

 of printed work. Under these circumstances I asked permission to throw 

 open the Club, and to invite the co-operation of all lovers of Natural 

 Science in the County, in the work of aiding to maintain the Cotteswold 

 Club in the high position to which, under the skilful leadership of my 

 predecessor in the chair, it had attained. The expansion and impetus 

 thus given have since then been productive of all the advantages which I 

 anticipated. A large inflision of ii-esh blood has brought with it renewed 

 vitahty. Our meetings have been invariably well attended, our papers 

 have increased in numbers and in importance, and our list of members has 

 gone on increasing, until the time appears to have arrived, when out of 

 consideration to the labour of our secretary, it seems necessary to set 

 bounds to our undue expansion. 



It is with a view to effecting this purpose, while we at the same time 

 employ the accession of fresh members as a means of enlarging our reve- 

 nues, that I ask your approval of the proposal now submitted for your 



