8 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



This memorial was referred to a special committee, which com- 

 mittee have not yet reported. 



Should the action of the common council be adverse to the prayer 

 of the petitioners, this board would respectfully suggest to their suc- 

 cessors, the new Board of Trustees, that application be made for the 

 privilege of erecting a suitable building for the Institute, on the 

 grounds of the Battery, and that a sufficient space, say three hundred 

 feet square, be allotted for that purpose. 



The Trustees deem it of the utmost importance to the prosperity 

 of the Institute that the annual fairs should be continued, provided 

 such accommodations for an exhibition can be procured in an eligible 

 position as will afford the necessary space. They deem any effort to 

 get up a fair, which shall not be complete and comprehensive, as 

 impolitic and unwise ; they, therefore, heartily approve of the course 

 of the Board of Managers, for the last two years, in resisting all 

 attempts to present an exhibition, which, for the want , of proper 

 accommodations, could only have resulted in loss to the Institute, 

 and in disappointment to the public. 



The Trustees, during the past year, appeared before the commis- 

 sioners of taxes and succeeded in procuring a reduction of $260.60 in 

 the tax levy of the past year. 



The report of the Finance Committee exhibits the financial condition 

 of the Institute, while that of the Library Committee gives encouraging 

 information of the continued usefulness of this branch of our Institute. 



The property of the Institute, No. 351 Broadway and No. 89 i 

 Leonard street, has been leased for two years, from May last, at an 

 annual rent of $5,500. 



The Trustees cannot close their report without alluding to the 

 loss of one of the members of their own Board. The announcement 

 of the death of Prof. James Renwick, Corresponding Secretary of 

 the Institute, and by virtue of this office one of its Trustees, has 

 already been officially communicated to the Institute. He performed 

 his last literary labors at his desk in this building. He was the 

 earnest and active friend of science, and his extensive information, 

 especially on all matters pertaining to chemistry and natural philoso- 

 phy, rendered him among the most respected of the members of the 

 Institute, and one of its most esteemed and useful officers. 



All of which is respectfully submitted. 



New York, March 24, 1863. WM. HALL, 



P. S. GREGORY, 

 EDWARD WALKER, 

 S. R. COMSTOCK, 

 BENEDICT LEWIS, Jr., 

 THOMAS McELRATH, 

 Trustees, 



