22 



factors, to whose disinterested influence and e:sertions 

 alone their acquisition is primarily due. 



The Financial result of the past year is also a subject of 

 congratulation, and fully bears out the expectation which 

 the Council had formed at the period of the last anniver- 

 sary. They feel confident that the present state of the 

 Society's property will enable them to provide for its effec- 

 tive maintenance at an expenditure not exceeding that of 

 last year, and thus to secure a considerable surplus, which 

 they propose to apply in part to necessary improvements 

 in the accommodation of the Collection, and the residue 

 towards that gradual increase of the reserve fund to which 

 they still adhere as a principal object of their management. 



