56 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



President. This Society had followed the example ; we had 

 our patriarch as well as France ; a patriarch who had laboured 

 for years in the cause of science — a patriarch in every way 

 worthy of a similar honour ; if France had reason to be proud 

 of her Latreille, so had England of her Kirby. He warmly 

 congratulated the meeting on the presence of the distinguished 

 individual to whom he alluded, and he was sure the meeting 

 united with him in the sentiment. (Apjilause.) 



Mr. Kirby rose, and expressed his thanks to the President 

 for the kind manner in which he had spoken of him, and to 

 the Society for the honour that they had conferred on him, and 

 for the flattering marks of their approbation. He could not 

 make a long speech, but he assured the Society that all he 

 could do to advance its interests he would do ; at seventy-four 

 years of age, he trusted that much could not be expected of 

 him ; he found that his eyes began to fail him, and without 

 eyes an entomologist could do but little : he could not sit 

 down without reminding the meeting that the world was 

 indebted for most interesting and important portions of the 

 work, of which his own name stood conjointly as author, to 

 his friend beside him ; — and the reverend gentleman laid his 

 hand affectionately on the shoulder of Mr. Spence, and was 

 unable to proceed; during the pause, the meeting loudly 

 expressed their gratification in the scene. Mr. Kirby hoped 

 that Mr. Spence might be elected an honorary member, saying, 

 that he considered him as much deserving of that honour as 

 himself 



The President then proposed, that Mr. Spence be elected 

 an honorary member, which was carried by acclamation. 



Mr. Spence, in returning thanks, avowed that he had 

 attended the meeting, with his two sons, for the express pur- 

 pose of joining the Society ; he was much gratified to find his 

 favourite study in such good esteem, as the establishment of 

 this Society, and the magnitude of the present meeting, proved 

 it to be. He had lately returned from the continent ; when in 

 in France, he had seen Mr. Lefebvre, the Secretary of the 

 French Entomological Society, who had expressed his warmest 

 wishes for the welfare of the English one, and his hopes that 

 the two Societies would commence, and continue, an amicable 

 intercourse. 



The President said that, having opened the proceedings of 



