NOTES ON HISTORY OF THE STATUTES 173 



(5) It was provided that the Session of the Society should commence a 

 fortnight earlier and end a week later than had previously been the case 

 (Chapter XII, Statute i). 



(6) New Statutes were added as to the Archives of the Society (Chapter 

 XVII). 



(7) Specific provision was also introduced for the making of Standing Orders, 

 and 



(8) The procedure as to the making, amending, and repealing of Statutes was 

 altered, so as to render it necessary that notice should be given at a previous 

 Council meeting, before any proposal to deal with the Statutes can be con- 

 sidered ; the previous requirement that any alteration must be agreed to at 

 two different meetings of Council before it can become law remaining unaltered. 



The Statutes as they now (1912) exist are given on pp. 145 to 158. 



NOTE ON THE ' BONDS ' REFERRED TO ON PAGE 160. 



As already stated (pp. 24, 25), difficulties were early experienced in obtain- 

 ing the annual subscriptions of the Fellows. The 'Bonds 1 appear to have 

 been a device to ensure payment. They were printed forms in which the 

 subscribing Fellow bound himself to pay the annual sum of fifty-two shillings, 

 under the penalty of ' a penal sum of twenty pounds ' for which he and his 

 heirs were liable. It would seem that even this obligation was not entirely 

 successful, for after the year 1742, the ' penal sum ' was increased to fifty 

 pounds. There is an interesting collection of these Bonds in the Archives 

 of the Society. It forms two large folio volumes and is specially valuable for 

 the autographs of the Fellows, who also affixed their seals to the documents. 

 Among the witnesses to the early signatures the names of Henry Oldenburg 

 and Edmund Halley occasionally occur. The earliest of the Bonds is dated 

 January 1, 1674, and the last June 24, 1807. 



