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possessions to that which is accorded to a private individual or to 

 a registered partnership. We have acquired the right to sue 

 and he sued. The right to sue practically only concerns those 

 of our Fellows who do not respond to our Treasurer's reminders 

 as to unpaid suhscriptions. This is a right possessed hy every 

 Chartered Society, and one, I am happy to say, very seldom 

 required to he put in force. According to my experience, with 

 regard to other societies, the right is only exercised when a 

 contumacious Fellow, who there is every reason to helieve can 

 pay, will neither do so, nor acquire his right to resign by having 

 satisfied his obligations. Let us hope the luxury of having 

 acquired a right to be sued may never be indulged in. 



There is another matter involved in the acquisition of a 

 Charter. Possibly some benevolent individuals of our body, 

 or outside our body, may desire to further the cause of ento- 

 mological science as represented by this Society, by remem- 

 bering us in their wills. In our former condition to have 

 made a legacy of benefit to us, it must have been bequeathed 

 to one or more individuals, and if the testator directed the 

 amount to be invested, and the interest only to be applied to 

 the immediate wants of the Society, or to any special purpose 

 connected with the Society, a system of trusts must have been 

 instituted, occasioning frequent changes, expense, and, to say 

 the least, great inconvenience. As a Chartered Society these 

 difficulties vanish. 



Hitherto I have regarded the acquisition of a Charter from 

 only the legal point of view. Prestige is perhaps scarcely an 

 English word, and yet, somehow or other, it seems to be so 

 generally acknowledged as to influence all by a process that may 

 be termed " unconscious cerebration." During our more than 

 fifty years of non-legal existence, I venture to believe we acquired 

 a prestige not to be excelled by that of any kindred Society. To 

 one and all I say, let that prestige not only be maintained, but 

 be vastly extended. 



I am not quite sure that our acquisition of a Charter is 

 correctly appreciated by some of our continental confnres, and 

 in at least one instance I almost wish we could look upon it 

 somewhat in the same light as they appear to do. At the meeting 

 of the Societe Entomologique de France (a Society we may be 

 proud to acknowledge our senior as a continuity), held on the 



