( clix ) 



THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Ladies and Gentlemen, 



I THINK it might be reasonably questioned, whether 

 I am bound, or even entitled, to deliver this Address at all. 

 The wisdom of our ancestors, as embodied in our venerable 

 Bye-Laws, has undoubtedly directed, that annually, on this 

 occasion, the Society shall hear from its Council a " Report on 

 its general concerns." But as to the further infliction on 

 you, either now, or at any other time, of an Address from the 

 occupant of this chair, I can find no enactment whatever, 

 which either directs it, or even alludes to it as permissible. 

 I dare not, however, be the first to break a custom, to which 

 my predecessors have invariably conformed. You have been 

 told that this Address shall be delivered ; and, accordingly, 

 delivered it shall be ! 



I am glad — though the practice is becoming monotonous — 

 to begin with a word of congratulation to the Society on 

 another year of undiminished activity, and an increasing 

 Fellowship-roll. I doubt if its meetings have ever been better 

 attended, or better supplied with interesting Exhibitions : 

 and there can be no doubt that the Transactions for the 

 Session 1912-13 will rank among the most important that 

 have ever been issued. Still more do I congratulate you, that 

 in this record there is nothing abnormal ; it merely repeats 

 that of many previous years, and there is every hope that it 

 will continue to be repeated. The Society, in fact, may say 

 with the Merchant of Venice — 



" Nor is my whole estate 

 Upon the fortunes of this present year." 



It is pleasant to think that in my last year of Office the 

 ranks of the Society have had a remarkable accession of new 



PROC. ENT. see. LOND., V. 1912. L 



