78 THE ADDRESSES, LECTURES, ETC., OF 



activity, and how much remains to be accomplished notwithstand- 

 ing the extraordinary progress of which we are apt to boast. 



I am happy to state that papers on several of these subjects have 

 already been promised by leading members of our body. 



Before concluding I have to ask you in the name of your 

 Council to give your post-factum approval to several of our acts 

 which strictly speaking should have been submitted tc you for 

 approval beforehand. We have taken upon ourselves to elect, 

 without ballot, several distinguished men who had not joined our 

 Society on the outset ; we have admitted Foreign members upon 

 terms different from those originally laid down for general member- 

 ship ; and we have postponed this opening meeting from the month 

 of November, which was the time originally fixed upon, till the end 

 of February. We may plead in excuse that we have been guided 

 in these matters solely by the desire to give stability to our enter- 

 prise, by collecting in the first place the elements necessary for its 

 success. 



I consider it a most fortunate circumstance for our Society that 

 through the liberality of the Council of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers we are enabled to hold our first meetings in these com- 

 modious rooms, under the roof of the parent Institution of 

 Engineers, and with their good wishes to cheer us on our way. 

 May our success justify their liberality, and may we all have reason 

 hereafter to feel that we have accomplished a useful task in con- 

 tributing towards the formation of the Society of Telegraph 

 Engineers. 



