( xxxiii ) 



THE PEESIDENT'S ADDEESS. 



Gentlemen, 



I think I may say that the Report of the Council is 

 in many respects the most satisfactory one that has ever been 

 presented in the history of the Society. Financially we began 

 the year with £86 4s. 2d. in hand, and we leave off with <£181 

 16s. SfZ. less the liabilities ; this balance by no means indicates 

 any unusual economy of expenditure, as we have spent more 

 than usual in proceedings and plates. Of course we have, I 

 may say unfortunately, received a legacy of £100 from Mr. 

 Samuel Stevens — I wish the legacy might have been deferred 

 for several years — and we have received £63 in Life Com- 

 positions, but the encouraging increase in recent years in the 

 number of Fellows testifies to the stability and value of the 

 Society. It is to be regretted that this increase in numbers 

 has not been so fully maintained during the past session ; but 

 the slight falling off will, I trust, prove to be only temporary. 

 Dr. Sharp remarked on January 16, 1889, that in 1868 there 

 were less than 200 Members and only £100 invested, while 

 in 1889 there were 300 Members and £400 invested, now 

 there are 418 Members and nearly £1000 invested. When I 

 joined the Society in 1866 it consisted of 207 Members, of 

 whom I regret to find that only 34 survive, and that 9 out of 

 those 34 preceded me by one year only, while one was elected 

 in the same year as myself. It is however noticeable that 

 among the remaining 24 there exists one original Member, 

 William Blundell Spence, whom however we never see, who 

 has consequently been a Member of this Society for 67 years, 

 while Mr. Samuel Stevens who died last year bad been an 

 active working Member of the Society for 62 years — well 



