Proceedings of the Society. xxxiti 



g^nt Corresponding Members, and science at the present mo- 

 mem deplores i he decease of Dr. Gardner, Director of the Bota- 

 nical Garden of Peradina at Ceylon, wiio was carried off in the 

 bloom of his youih. 



» The pecuniary state of the Society is satisfactory, as you 

 will be enabled to judge by the Report wbich the Auditors will 

 presently have i he honour to read to you ; a balance remains in 

 favour of the Society sufficient to ensure the defraying of next 

 year's expenses. 



» Such are. gentlemen, the transactions and events which 

 have occurred in the Society; and if these transactions are notj 

 in the opinion of some, of great importance, th se persons 

 ought, at le s", to take into consideration the efforts attempted 

 by a handful of men placed on a smnll point at such a distance 

 from the centres of knowledge, with the wish to benefit their 

 fellow-creatures. 



» It will also, we hope, be consi'iered as not altogether un- 

 meritoriousof them, not to have sh unk from all the obstacles 

 which, in small coffloauriities such as ours, too commonly stand 

 in the way of the study of the Arts, Sciences and Literature ; 

 and fcspecially in circums'ances in which tosupply diily wants, 

 both the mind and body have other struggles to Bustain. 



I All these difficulties have, however, been overcome by the 

 steadiness, perseverance and regularity of each day's labour, 

 and our SoGie<y in its progress, has seen others rise, prosper 

 and disappear which had been formed before, during and after 

 its establishment. Founded on the 20lh August 1829, origi- 

 nally under tha denomination of ^i The Natural Bistory Societij,* 

 it has this day completed its twentieth jea'r. 



» And we have every reason for indulging the hope Ibai 

 under the auspices of the en ightened chief who governs Mau- 

 ritius, and whose a patronarge has been graciously granted to u?, 

 our Society, s'rong in the assistance pTOmisei to it by Sir 

 George Anderson, and conscious of the duties it has to fulfil, 

 will again see a new era open before it, aa (fa, we may trust, 

 of happiness and prosperity.* 



