[Report, 1847]. 

 ROYAL ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF IRELAND. 



Your Council, in presenting their Report for the past 

 year, regret that, owing to the peculiar circumstances of 

 the period, the consequent high price of provisions, and 

 difficulty of collecting subscriptions, there has been a 

 considerable increase of debt. Finding this accumulation, 

 and unwilling to draw further upon the liberality of a few 

 individuals to make good the default of many, your 

 Council addressed a circular (of which a copy, marked A, 

 is appended) to all who had been, at any time, members 

 of the Society. This address brought forth a strong 

 expression of feeling on the part of some individuals of 

 influence, but, for the most part, was unnoticed. Your 

 Council thus felt, on the one hand, that the zeal manifes- 

 ted called for their continued perseverance ; while, on 

 the other, the general apathy of members was very 

 discouraging ; yet, still considering the great value of the 

 Institution to the public, the difficulties which have been 

 overcome during the past seventeen years, the great 

 probability, almost certainty, that institutions like yours, 

 having the instruction, recreation, and mental elevation 

 of the public at large for their object, will, nay, must, 

 sooner or later receive the support of Government, as 

 they already do in other countries; your Council have 

 gone on, and, by a considerable diminution of expenditure, 

 have secured to their successors a position which, with 

 moderate aid from you, will enable them to support the 

 Institution without increasing the debt ; but, if at the end 

 of summer they should not be able to liquidate it, it will 

 be for them to consider whether they can enter upon the 

 expenses of another winter. Thus, the fate of the Society 

 rests with those who, by withholding subscriptions, tax, 

 beyond endurance, the liberality and good feeling of the 

 gentlemen appointed as the executive of the Society. 

 On these defaulters must rest the odium of its fall ; and, 

 if such should prove inevitable, it will be most disgraceful 

 to them and to the country. The eminent Professor 

 E. Forbes, in his recent address to the Society, said : — " It 



