8 ANNUAL MEETING. 
Rev. Dr. Irvinu, F.G.S.—Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: 
By accident your Secretary has requested me to move the adoption 
of this admirable Report since I came into the room. I suppose 
he fixed on me by a kind of instinct of fraternity. We have 
together, in former years, hammered the rocks—especially in the 
sunny south-west of that glorious ccunty of Devonshire. So I 
cannot, for a moment, hesitate to accept that responsibility which 
your Secretary wished to thrust upon me. Not that I feel that 
that responsibility is a great one, because no advocacy is required, 
I think, to recommend this Report to the minds of all present, and 
to all who are interested in this Institute and the noble work it is 
carrying on. I look upon this Institute as something unique. It 
is a learned Society and something more. It is, as it were, a 
nucleus for the fraternization of all learned Societies and for all 
those engaged in learning—not scientific only, but literary and 
historical, and everything which tends to throw light on progress 
and the welfare of the human family; and to elucidate the bene- 
ficent workings of Divine providence. So I am sorry to see one 
statement in the Report, which announces the loss of so many 
clerical members of the Institute. Let us hope it will be only a 
temporary relapse, for I think the Institute has done in this way 
somewhat of the work which the great Oxford Reformers did for 
us when they advocated greater learning, a wider range of studies 
and a severer intellectual discipline for the clergy of the Church 
of this country. Therefore I have very great pleasure, and I 
count it a great honour to be called upon, to move the adoption of 
this Report. 
The Ven. Archdeacon THornron, D.D.—Mr. President, ladies 
and gentlemen: A long speech is not wanted in seconding the 
resolution which has been proposed to you. The Report which 
has been read to us, or partially read to us, appears to be a 
satisfactory one, and shows that while the Institute is doing its 
work in various departments of science, it is possible to be deeply 
scientific and at the same time deeply religious. 
I sincerely hope, if the number of Members and persons 
interested in the Institute be raised to the round “one thousand,” 
which the Secretary expressed his hope it would be, that this 
difficulty will be removed and that the £200 which has been taken 
away from the reserve fund will be replaced by £300. I beg to 
second the adoption of the resolution. 
