on resigning office, 27 October, 1890. xiii 



same to be submitted hereafter to a general meeting of the Society 

 for its approval." Lastly, it was resolved : " that the money re- 

 quisite for building the Society's house be raised among the 

 members of the Society by shares of £50 each, bearing interest at 

 the rate of four per cent, per annum." So eager was the Society 

 to begin, that it was decided not to wait for the Charter; the 

 plans were approved somewhat hastily, and at a special meeting 

 held 16 May, 1832, the architect was directed to invite tenders. 



Early in the Michaelmas Term of 1832 the Charter arrived. 

 Professor Sedgwick happened to be President, and, in order to avoid 

 additional expense in fees 1 , it had been agreed that his name alone 

 should appear upon the document. It therefore begins : "Whereas 

 Adam Sedgwick, Clerk, Master of Arts [etc], has by his petition 

 humbly represented unto Us, That he, together with others of our 

 loyal subjects, Graduates of the said University, did in the year 

 One thousand, eight hundred, and nineteen, form themselves into a 

 Society," and so forth. No man had a better right to occupy so 

 prominent a position ; and it will be readily understood what 

 pleasure he himself derived from seeing it there. He was never 

 tired of telling the story of the Charter, when, as he put it, "I was 

 the Society." 



A special meeting was summoned, 6 November, 1832, to 

 accept the Charter. Sedgwick read it, together with an abstract 

 of it — and it is almost needless to record that it was accepted 

 unanimously. The Council was then directed to prepare a body 

 of Bye Laws — the code by which, with only a few slight alterations, 

 we are still governed. 



It was on the occasion of the reception of the Charter that the 

 first of those dinners was held which have now become an annual 

 institution. It seems to me that Sedgwick and the Council of that 

 year wished that November 6, 1832, should be kept as the birth- 

 day of the Society — to commemorate the fact that on that day it 

 had assumed a corporate existence. I need not remind you that 

 such a decision involves a sacrifice of twelve years of the Society's 

 life ; but, on the other hand, it commemorates an important event 

 in its history — for I believe I am right in saying that it was the 

 first Society out of London to which a Royal Charter was conceded. 



The new house was ready for the occupation of the Society in 

 the autumn of 1833. The situation was convenient, and it was 

 itself spacious and well-arranged, with a large meeting-room, 

 museum, and reading-room. The change inaugurated an era of 

 prosperity which lasted for several years. The meetings were 

 well-attended — indeed the Monday evenings on which the Society 

 met were held, by common consent, to be pre-occupied, and no 

 rival attractions were allowed to interfere with them ; — The 

 1 The fees amounted to £271. Minutes, 6 November, 1832. 



