187 



At the Meeting of the Society in the evening, the following Ad- 

 dress was delivered by the President from the Chair : 



Gentlemen, 



You have heard the report of the Council on the general state of 

 our Society, containing an account of its property and of its debts, 

 of the several sums received and expended during the last year, 

 and a careful estimate of all our resources for the current year. 

 You have also heard a separate report, from a select Committee, 

 respecting the various collections of our Museum, and the progress 

 which has been made in their arrangement. 



I cannot allow this opportunity to pass away without expressing 

 my hearty concurrence in the sentiments recorded by the Com- 

 mittee, and my admiration of the talents exhibited by our Curator, 

 in a task of no common difficulty and of almost incredible labour. 

 At the same time, I should ill express my own feelings and those 

 of the Society, did I not on this occasion also acknowledge the 

 great obligations we owe to several members of our Council, and 

 especially to Mr. Greenough, who during many years has fully 

 given to us the benefit of his labour and talents, both in directing us 

 to those sources from which our collection might be supplied, and 

 in arranging systematically the various specimens accumulated from 

 time to time in our cabinets. 



One result has been obtained from the excellent stratigraphical 

 arrangements of Mr. Lonsdale, which I had not myself anticipated ; 

 they not only place in an instructive point of view the excellencies, 

 but also the defects of our collection ; and it appears from the report 

 of the Committee, that some of the suites of specimens intended to 

 illustrate the secondary formations of England are eminently defec- 

 tive. It will be the endeavour of the Council by the exchange of 

 duplicates, and by all other means within their reach, to fill up 

 these chasms in the Museum: and in effecting this object they 

 look forward to the friendly cooperation of provincial bodies, asso- 

 ciated for purposes like our own, and, above all, to the zeal and 

 generosity of our own Members. 



You will perceive, Gentlemen, from the report of the Council, 

 that in the general estimate of the receipts and expenditure of the 

 current year, there is a balance of about ninety pounds against the 

 Society. Even such a deficit as this would produce feelings of 

 deep regret, were it an indication of any general falling off in our 

 resources ; but the fact admits of ready explanation without any 

 such disheartening conclusion. Our annual income is decidedly on 

 the increase ; but our general funds have not yet entirely reco- 

 vered from the drain upon them which took place when we came 

 into the occupation of these apartments. And during this year, be- 

 sides paying up heavy arrears, we have incurred an expense of more 

 than six hundred pounds in the publication of our Memoirs. There 

 is, however, now laid up in the cabinets of the Museum a literary 

 stock amounting in value to not less than twelve hundred pounds ; 

 which, though but in a small degree available against the present 



