10 



our Society preclude them from entering into any arrangement 

 with other societies which should affect the self-government of 

 our own. I may safely affirm that, whenever the subject has 

 been mooted in our Council, the idea of fusion between the four 

 Societies which may imply community of funds and property has 

 always seemed chimerical : and that they should have no other 

 mouth-piece than a common journal their joint property is, all 

 imjDediments being kept in view, infeasible. 



The dreams we have been pursuing have only found their full 

 development in some of the "prospecting" minds of The British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science. Their own Report of 

 their last meeting at Bradford has not yet been published, but ac- 

 cording to the Bradford Observer the " Report of the Sub-committee 

 on Scientific Organization as regards Local Societies " was read, in 

 the absence of their Secretary, Sir Walter Elliot, by Prof. Balfour 

 Stewart, and stated that it was contemplated as to the " scientific 

 memoirs of local societies " " to collect as many of them as were 

 of value and publish them collectively. It was found, however, 

 there was a disposition on the part of such societies to retain their 

 memoirs and to publish them separately, and that it would not be 

 possible to get them to work together on such a work." 



Herein we have the gist of the whole matter. The self-esteem 

 of these societies, whichever of them may have been more especially 

 alluded to, and however it may have surprised the committee, is 

 not only indispensable to their existence but becoming. Nor is this 

 disposition of theirs wholly an evil ; for though among a multi- 

 plicity of publications it may happen that a valuable contribution 

 to science may get buried from the sight of those persons who 

 may be most fitted for appreciating it, there can be no doubt that 

 it is sometimes well for authors whose reputations have to be 

 made, as well as for the advancement of knowledge, that there 

 should be a portal of appeal from the judgment of one editor or 

 committee to that of another. 



From this running commentary I shall proceed to specify a 

 few instances in which, since our last Spring Meeting, fruit has 

 been matured in one or other of our literary domains. 



The event which more immediately touches this Society is the 

 appearance, at the beginning of the present year, of the first of 

 the two promised volumes of the " Bibliotheca CornuUensis. A 

 Catalogue of the Writings both Manuscript and Printed of Cornishmen, 

 and of Works relating to Cornwall, with Biographical Memoranda and 

 copious Literary References. By George Clement Boase and William 

 Prideaux Courtney. (London, Longman & Co.") 



All who are acquainted with the doings of this Society will 



