THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen, 



Our Jubilee has come and gone, and if we have not made the 

 trumpet of the jubilee to sound throughout all the land, it is 

 because, in disregarding the ancient command, "Ye shall not 

 sow, neither reap, nor gather the grapes in it," we recognise a 

 more perfect way of hallowing the fiftieth year, by quietly 

 continuing our labours. There is no sabbatical year for Science; 

 no year of rest for its votaries. 



The full Report of the Council renders it unnecessary for me 

 to refer to many of our internal affairs. The recent building 

 alterations necessarily caused inconvenience during their pro- 

 gress, but the result has been to give us the use of this admirable 

 Meeting Room, whilst our Library accommodation has been both 

 increased and improved. The removal and re-arrangement of 

 the Library have thrown much additional work upon the 

 Librarian's shoulders ; and as the mouthpiece of the Society I 

 beg to offer our hearty thanks to Mr. Grut for his invaluable 

 services. But that I know there is no limit to the labour he is 

 willing to undertake, or the time he places at our disposal, I 

 should hesitate to remind you that the next thing to be done is, 

 to compile a new Catalogue of the Library, and then to print it. 



We have lost, by death, six of our colleagues : — 



Benjamin Cooke, a well-known Lancashire entomologist, was 

 born the 16th September, 1816, and died suddenly at Southport 

 on the 4th February, 1883. He was for several years President 

 of the Northern Entomological Society, afterwards Vice-President 

 of the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society, and for 

 the last eighteen years he had been one of our Members, though 

 I cannot recall an instance of his having attended any of our 

 meetings. His published writings are few ; too few, for he was 



