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employ to the best advantage the machinery of association, which 

 had already effected so much. It is probable, therefore, that before 

 very long you will have the important question to decide, whether 

 to retain your present apartments, or to accept a suitable place in 

 a new building. Throughout all the communications with the 

 Government, your officers have taken especial care to be perfectly 

 explicit on two points : one, that till the plans were prepared, any 

 final decision on your part was impossible ; the other, that you had 

 a free option to retain your present apartments should you think 

 fit, having received them as a grant, to endure so long as the 

 Society should exist. There can now, I think, be little doubt but 

 that the leading Scientific Societies will be suitably provided for, 

 and that you will have the opportunity of taking your proper place 

 at the head of science, with the other Societies by your side. 



The pursuit of science will thus be greatly facilitated ; it will be 

 rendered more convenient, and therefore more attractive ; and many 

 will devote themselves to it who perhaps otherwise would not have 

 entered upon it at all. 



While, however, the Government is wisely anxious to encourage 

 the active pursuit of science by meeting the wishes of the great 

 body of scientific men, we perhaps may have it in our power to 

 effect something in the same direction. 



From various observations of my late lamented predecessor in his 

 Addresses, it was evidently his opinion that we should act wisely in 

 shaping our rules so as to adapt them to the varying usages of 

 society, rather than to preserve everything unchanged, relying on 

 the sanction of a long prescription. In former times, November was 

 the height of the London season, and the Anniversary, with all its 

 preliminary business, was naturally held then, because the largest 

 number of Fellows were in town. Whether for the better or not, 

 the season has been changed, and it is now six mouths later ; we, 

 however, remain where we were. The Council meets the latter 

 end of October, and continues its meetings through November ; the 

 principal business being to award the medals, and to select the 

 Officers and Council to be recommended to the Society at large 

 for election. The November business is wound up by the Anniver- 

 sary, the most important meeting of the Society. The Fellows who 

 are not permanent residents in London are naturally absent in the 



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