CHAPTER XVIII. 



FIRST snow AT ABERDEEN, 1834. 



Ix 1S34 the Society obtained a new Charter of Incorpora- 

 tion. The petition on which it was granted was presented 

 by the Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the year on behalf 

 of themselves and the other members, and set forth that the 

 Society, since its incorporation in 1787, ' had continued to 

 promote the laudable and patriotic purposes of its institu- 

 tion, which had been productive of great benefit to the 

 country ; that from the general approbation with which its 

 exertions had been viewed by the public, the Society had 

 received a large accession of members, and that it now 

 consisted of about 1900 members, including a very 

 large proportion of the noblemen and gentlemen of rank, 

 property, and professional eminence in Scotland ; that 

 whilst the Society had continued to devote a great share of 

 its attention to the Highlands of Scotland, it had of late 

 years been enabled, from the general support which it had 

 received, gradually to extend the sphere of its usefulness, 

 by giving considerable sums annually in premiums for the 

 purpose of improving agriculture, encouraging industry, 

 and rewarding useful inventions in the arts therewith con- 

 nected, all over Scotland ; and also that the Society having 

 applied its funds in a way which experience had shown to be 

 highly advantageous, is fully satisfied that a continuance of 

 its attention to the improvement of agriculture and the 

 different branches of rural industry, and the arts therewith 

 connected, all over Scotland, as well as to such of the original 

 objects of the institution as may still be beneficially advanced 

 by the Society's exertions, would be eminently beneficial to 

 that part of the United Kingdom, as well as to the nation at 

 large.' The petition further set forth that ' this extension of 

 the purposes of the Institution had been approved of, and 

 acted upon by the Society for several years, and that certain 



