175 



SPRING MEETING, 



21sf Mat/, 1875. 



THE PEESIDENT'S ADDEESS. 



The President, Dr. Jago, F.E.S., delivered the following 

 Addi'ess : — 



Ladies and Gentlemen, 



In a Society like ovu-s, in which so many of those who constitute 

 it have passed the prime of life, it can hardly be expected that 

 we can meet here, after an interval of a year, without having to 

 notice the absence from our lists of names that have, in one way 

 or another, been identified with it. However this may be, it is 

 not to-day that we are exempt from such regrets. Since our last 

 Spring Meeting we have lost two of our governing Members, 

 each of whom had lived beyond four score years. 



Mr. John James, as a member of the Council for much of the 

 six and forty years that he had belonged to the Institution, was a 

 zealous and esteemed coadjutor in all that concerned our welfare. 



Sir Edward (then Mr.) Smirke became a Member twenty-one 

 years ago, on the occasion of his receiving the appointment 

 of Vice- Warden of the Stannaries. In the Cambridge tripos 

 he had earned mathematical distinction; and in "Freeman's 

 Eeports" and "Eoscoe's Evidence," that of an editor learned in 

 the law. In an appendix to the suit of Vice v. Thomas, ."with 

 its elaborate accounts of the Ancient Charters of the Tinners, of 

 the Eevenues and the Government of the Stannaries," &c., 

 he established a reputation for profound antiquarian research in 

 matters especially affecting this county. Besides which, he was 

 a facile, logical, and sequential speaker in the presence of any 

 audience. A mind so cultivated, and endowed with a genuine 

 taste for so many of the pursuits that are promoted by this 



