67 



(:ith February^ 1894. 



Mr. Robert Llyod Pattkrs )N, J. P., in the absence of the 

 President (Professor FitzGerald), occupied the Chair. 



Mr. George Roche, of Dublin, gave a Lecture, entitled 

 THE AMERICAN MAIL SERVICE. 



THE LATE MR. JOSEPH JOHN MURPHY. 



Prior to the dehvery of the lecture, 



Mr. Patterson said he regretted that the President of the 

 Society, Professor Fitzgerald, was not present, and in his absence 

 he, as one of the Vice-presidents, took the chair. He was no 

 stranger to that position, as he was President of the Society many 

 years ago, and he could say that, excepting the Chamber of Com - 

 merce, there was no room in Belfast in which he felt more at home 

 than in that room in which they were assembled. He regretted that 

 his first duty on taking the chair was to perform a duty that was 

 a very painful one to him in consequence of the nature of the 

 motion he was going to submit for their consideration in a few 

 minutes. And yet, having regard to the degree of intimacy, and 

 friendly relationship that existed between the family of the late 

 Mr. Joseph John Murphy and his own family for a very 

 lengthened period, he thought the motion he was about to submit 

 to them would be considered to come not inappropriately from 

 himself. It would be fresh in the memory of all of them that 

 Mr. Murphy had been called away to another world within 

 a very recent period ; and under those circumstances, when they 

 had lost such an old and valued and prominent member of their 

 Society, it was only right and fitting that a vote of regret should 

 be passed for his departure and a vote of sympathy and condolence 

 conveyed to his relatives. Mr. Murphy had been elected a 



