quities which, through many years' patient research, had been 

 made by his late brother, Mr. Edward Benn, with this proviso, 

 that the Society would furnish a suitable habitat for the collec- 

 tion. The Committee of the Society, with very great spirit, 

 met Mr. Benn's liberality by collecting from their townsmen a 

 considerable sum of money, some ^"400 or ^500 ; and the fruits 

 of that amount they had in the building that evening. They 

 had now got added to the edifice three valuable rooms. One 

 of them was devoted to Mr. Benn's collection ; in the second, 

 their librarian proposed to deposit the very valuable assortment 

 of books. That assortment contained a tolerably complete set 

 of the transactions of learned societies. Many of the learned 

 societies of Europe presented to that Society copies of their 

 transactions. The third room, which was a smaller one, was 

 exceedingly well adapted for the holding of committee meetings, 

 and for such like purposes. Before he made way for Mr. 

 Patterson, he would just say how anxious the Council were 

 that more of those who were members of the Society and who 

 attended its meetings would come forward and give them, in 

 the shape of papers or short addresses, the result of their 

 labours. One of these they had last year, and it was highly 

 appreciated. He hoped that the example thus set would be 

 imitated by others during the coming session. Mr. Patterson 

 would now proceed with his address. 



Mr. Patterson said : Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, 

 most of you are aware that in the early part of this year the 

 large collection of antiquities which had been formed by the 

 late Mr. Edward Benn, of Glenravel House, County of Antrim, 

 was presented to this Society by his brother, Mr. George Benn, 

 to whom the collection had been bequeathed. You are also, 

 no doubt, aware that the Council of the Society, with a view of 

 securing a suitable abiding-place for this important collection 

 of the antiquities of our country, determined upon building an 

 addition to the Museum which would accommodate the Benn 

 collection, and, at the same time, would afford some very 

 essential accommodation for other portions of their collections 



