21 



INCOME. 



Your Auditors have much pleasure in being enabled to 

 report to the Society, that the Income of the year, ending on 

 the 31st day of December 1838, exceeds that of the preceding 

 year ; and although the increase is not to any great amount, 

 yet it occurs in an item of the Receipts which strikes your 

 Auditors to be of too much importance, in reference to the 

 future welfare of the Society, to be passed over by them with- 

 out comment. The item alluded to is Annual Subscriptions; 

 the clear increase on which, amounting to nearly £200, more 

 than compensates for the deficit on other smaller items; and 

 as it is the opinion of your Auditors, that this is the most 

 stable, and fixed source of the Society's Income, they with 

 becoming deference suggest, that the Council should be re- 

 commended to afford every accommodation, freedom, and 

 facility to the Fellows and their friends visiting the Society's 

 Gardens, that a liberal construction of the By-laws will admit 

 of; hoping by such means to promote an increase in the 

 number of Fellows, and thereby place the finances of the So- 

 ciety beyond the influence of any adverse contingency. 



The amount paid for compositions has fallen off during the 

 course of the past year; and as that investment is in some 

 measure, a test of public opinion as to the stability of the So- 

 ciety, your Auditors have reason to believe, that the sugges- 

 tion which they have taken the liberty of making, relative to 

 the removal of every unnecessary shackle on the privileges of 

 the Fellows, will have the effect of increasing the amount of 

 this deposit, and insure a fund to be had recourse to in case 

 of need. 



EXPENDITURE. 



Your Committee of Auditors have to state, that the Expen- 

 diture for the past year, has been kept considerably under the 

 amount of the Receipts, which has afforded to the Council an 

 opportunity of adding upwards of £1200 to the Investment 

 Fund, exclusive of the purchase of Exchequer Bills to 

 the amount of £200. The balance in the Banker's hands 

 (£341 2s. 9d.) is also greater than it was at the close of the 

 preceding year. 



