REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. 



In making to this Annual General Meeting the Report 

 required by the By-Laws, on the progress of the Society 

 during the past year and on its general concerns, it is gra- 

 tifying to the Council to have again to announce a continu- 

 ance of that prosperity which has hitherto invariably attended 

 the institution. In the last year, as in all previous years, 

 there has been a considerable accession of new Members, 

 and an increase of the Society's means of promoting the ob- 

 jects contemplated by its Charter: in the year 1835, as in 

 each of the more recent years of the Society's existence, there 

 was also an improvement, to a marked extent, in the So- 

 ciety's financial condition. Extraordinary expenditure to a 

 considerable amount which has been incurred, in the earlier 

 months of 1636, for the advancement of two highly import- 

 ant objects hereafter to be referred to, has prevented the 

 financial improvement from extending over the whole inter- 

 val between the present and the last Anniversary; but the 

 Council entertain hopes, notwithstanding the diminished 

 balance that exists on this day as compared with the last 

 Anniversary, that should the principal of the Society's under- 

 takings in the current year prove successful, the year 1836 

 will also, like its predecessors, be found to have added to 

 the Invested Capital of the Institution. 

 The increase in the number of 



Members 



which has taken place within the year, has been in those 

 two important and useful classes, the Fellows and the Gor- 



a2 



