14 
gardens possess will, we anticipate, be apparent during the visits. 
which we hope will not be wnfrequent while your Excellencies 
reside in their immediate vicinity. 
SAMUEL Havuauton, Clk., M.D., F.R.S,, President. 
V. Batt, M.A., F.R.S., Secretary. 
H. M. Barron, Treasurer. 
The address to Lord Londonderry was read in the 
Gardens on the 2nd November, when, owing to the 
extreme inclemency of the day, there was but a small 
attendance of Members. It was as follows :— 
May IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY, 
We, the President, Vice-Presidents, and Council of the Royal 
Zoological Society of Ireland, beg to offer, on behalf of the Society, 
a sincere welcome to your Excellency on the occasion of your arrival 
in this country as the representative of her Majesty the Queen. The 
object of this Society is at present, as it always has been, to provide 
instruction and amusement for the people of Dublin, and to give 
them an opportunity of cultivating a knowledge of, aa a love for, 
natural history. During the year, large ane of children have: 
been admitted to the Gardens either free or at reduced rates, according 
to the nature of the Institutions respectively to which they belonged. 
Your Excellency’s predecessors in the high office which you now 
occupy, have always evinced an interest in these Gardens, and to. 
several of them, as well as to members of the Royal Family, we are 
indebted for Beaavond which have served to increase the attractions 
afforded by our collection of animals. Owing to an expenditure 
during the current fear of a sum of money entrusted to us by the 
Committee for affording relief to the unemployed, we haye been 
enabled to improve the Gardens themselves in an important degree, 
while by means of our ordinary resources we have re-built and re- 
arranged one of the largest houses in the Gardens, and have acquired 
by purchase many valuable and interesting animals. Late as it now is 
in the season we feel assured that your Excellency will be willing to 
admit, after an inspection of the Gardens, that our Society is ina 
prosperous and satisfactory condition, and that it has proved itself 
well worthy of the grant in aid which it receives from the Government- 
SAMUEL Hauauton, Clk., M.D., President. 
V. BALL, M.A., F.RS., Secretary. 
H. M. Barton, Treasurer. 
