30° 
WEDNESDAY, JUNE torn, 1903. 

Annual General Meeting. 

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL 
FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE oth, 1903. 
It may not perhaps be generally known to the Members that 
this year the Society is about to enter on the fiftieth year of its 
existence. The first Meeting of the Society was held on 
September 1st, 1854. Among those who took an active part in 
its formation, just half a century since, and whose names appear 
as Members of the First Committee of Management, are Mr. 
Barclay Phillips, who now lives at Bedford, and Mr. George de 
Paris, to whose energy and resource the Town and Corporation of 
Brighton are so much indebted as Chairman of the Fine Arts 
Committee. 
The First Annual Report is dated September 13th, 1855. 
This modest unpretending booklet,—somewhat of a curiosity now, 
—lies on the table for your inspection. 
For just on 50 years the Meetings of the Society, appointed 
to be held in the second week of each month between September 
and June, have gone on uninterruptedly. 
We cannot chronicle the admission of 74 new Members in 
this Report as in that of 1855, but it is satisfactory to be able to 
record that there are 170 names on the list, and that the Meetings 
during the past year have been more than ordinarily well attended. 
We have to mourn the loss by death of two old Members 
who once took an active part in the work of the Society, viz., Mr. 
Alderman Cox, who joined in 1871, and Mr. Alderman Davey, 
who became a Member in 1872 and was Hon. Auditor for some 
years. During the past year we have lost nine Members, three 
by death and six by resignation, and eleven new Members have 
been elected. ; 
The re-building of the Public Library has necessitated the 
purchase of new bookcases for the Society’s books. These have 
been obtained at a cost of £16 10s. 6d. The Council regret the 
