ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XIX 



Lonsdale this award of the Council, and of assuring him of the inter- 

 est still felt by the Society in the progress of his labours. I beg 

 leave in Mr. Lonsdale's name to return you his best thanks for this 

 mark of approbation, and to state that I am certain that it will derive 

 its greatest value in Mr. Lonsdale's estimation from the circumstance 

 of its assuring him that his memory still lives in the recollection of 

 the Geological Society. 



After the other proceedings had been completed, and the Officers 

 and Council had been elected, the President proceeded to address the 

 Meeting. 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, 



SIR HENRY T. DE LA BECHE, C.B., F.R.S. &c. 



Gentlemen, — It again becomes my duty to address you on our 

 progress during the past year. And first let me congratulate you on 

 the state of our finances, — a subject of no small importance in societies 

 such as ours, since so much of the good we can effect must depend 

 upon it. You will have found from the Report of your Council that 

 the receipts have so far exceeded the expenditure, that a considerable 

 sum, beyond the balance usually retained, now stands in your bankers* 

 hands. We have certainly to record a diminution, by three, in the 

 numbers of our body ; but when we view this with reference to the 

 general state of public affairs during the past year, and to the total 

 number of our Fellows (894), we may regard this also as matter for 

 congratulation, more particularly when we compare our decrease with 

 that which has been experienced by many other societies during the 

 same time. Your Quarterly Journal has continued to be published 

 regularly, making known the communications of our colleagues 

 shortly after they have been read in this room, thus most materially 

 aiding the progress of that branch of knowledge for the cultivation 

 and advance of which we are associated. 



Loss by death, which from our numbers it must always be the 

 melancholy duty of your President to announce at this season, has 

 diminished our body by seventeen. 



We have to lament the decease of the Rev. John Hailstone, one of 

 the first Members of our Society. He was born near London in 1 759, 

 and after receiving his early education at Beverley School, Yorkshire, 

 removed to Canibridge, entering first at Catherine Hall and afterwards 

 at Trinity College. H^ distinguished himself as Second Wrangler for 

 his year (1782), Dr. Wood (late Master of St. John's) being Senior 

 Wrangler, and Professor Porson and other distinguished men taking 

 their degrees at the same time. In 1784 he became a Fellow of 

 Trinity College, and in 1 788 was appointed Woodwardian Professor, 

 an ofiice which he held for thirty years, until his marriage and re- 

 tirement to the \icarage of Trumpington in 1818, when he was suc- 

 ceeded by our colleague Professor Sedgwick. 



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