210 Timehri. 
hundred volumes of general literature have been added to our 30,000 volumes. ~ 
The list of magazines has been revised and increased. KHconomies have been 
effected where possible without touching efficiency, e. g., in the substitution of the 
tri-weekly for the daily “‘ Times ” which creates a natural sentimental grievance. 
There is, however, every pr.spect of much larger funds being available this year 
for books, magazines, and journals, and such heroic measures may be no longer 
necessary. The “ Deutsche Rundschau ” and “ Revue de Deux Mondes ” have 
alas ! long since disappeared as well as the “ Dublin Review ” and “ Guardian.” 
But better times are perhaps in store. A regular monthly supply of the leading 
serious publications and the best novels as they are issued is now procured from 
the Times Book Club, and numbers are added on the arrival of each 
mail through independent suggestion of members and purchase; locally or in 
England. Many gifts of books and magazines continue to be made, and we trust 
that this excellent practice may continue. 
Having detained you at unexpected length on our recent attempts, I must turn 
to the proper subject of my address which will fall naturally under the headings o¢ 
SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF THE CORRESPOND- 
ENCE, BOOK, MUSEUM, AGRICULTURAL AND COMMERCIAL 
COMMITTEES, RESPECTIVELY. 
In regard to the first mentioned, it is clear that the re-issue of “ Timehri ” will 
enable it to get into closer touch at once with the scientific and other learned 
societies of Europe and America. For years past this Committee has been para- 
ysed by having no publication of the Society’s proceedings to offer in exchange 
for the records of other gatherings of the learned and the practical. Correspond- 
ence under such circumstances tends to languish and comes to be regarded 
as selfishly unilateral. We must not expect too much from human nature. A 
hundred copies of “ Timehri ’’ will be easily disposed of in reviving such inter- 
course with the activities of British and Foreign associations. 
LITERARY STAGNATION. 
In regard to the Book Committee I would suggest the consideration of the 
promotion of a Literary or Literary and Debating Club or Union holding evening 
meetings fortnightly or monthly. University extension lectures such as afford a 
healthy mental stimulus in English towns are hardly possible here, and the papers 
read at the general meetings are necessarily of too scientific or practical a charac- 
ter to interest any but the pundits of the sterner sex and attract the ladies not at 
all. When one knows that in the United States, North or South, even where the 
climate is hotter than here, as is the ease in parts of the Mississippi Valley and 
along the Gulf of Mexico and the Sea Islands, there is not a prairie or mountain 
village without its well organised literary society, one feels that Georgetown 
is not doing as much as it ought to save its intellectual soul alive. Few opportuni- 
ties of discussing any subject of art, letters or Imperial politics exist, and an ap- 
palling listness prevails on such subjects. What leisure can be spared from 
the problems of sugar, rice or balata, is absorbed by guessing teas or bridges 
The latter is a far more virulent disease here than it has ever been in London, 
