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wane ; but let us hope not permanently so. For this waning 

 interest there are many reasons, most of them arising from cir- 

 cumstances beyond our control. Some of these I shall eudeavour 

 to point out. Firstly, this society has now to meet not only the 

 competing attractions of the young and vigorous Naturalists' 

 Field Club, of which my friend Mr. Robert Young is this year 

 the excellent president (a matter of congratulation both for the 

 club and himself), but also those of the societies connected with 

 places of worship in town, the young men of these congregations 

 associating themselves with the societies connected with those 

 churches of which they are members. Thus there is material 

 enough to make one large flourishing society, so scattered that 

 its energy, powerful for greater results if united, is in some de- 

 gree weakened in consequence of its subdivision. Again, sixty 

 years ago, when the society was founded, the population of 

 Belfast did not number more than 33,000, compared with 

 207,000, at the present time. But then the people, professional 

 men, merchauts, traders, and others, all resided in the town, 

 while now the large majority of these classes reside either in the 

 country or in suburbs sufficiently distant to make it inconvenient 

 for them to return after having left it at the close of their busi- 

 ness day. Even the last twenty or thirty years have made a 

 further great change in this respect. It is quite in my recollec- 

 tion when most of the leading members of the society resided 

 almost within call. Now only one member of the council 

 resides near us ; the rest are so scattered that it has become 

 almost impossible for the council to hold their meetings for 

 the transaction of the society's business at each other's houses, 

 as was long their pleasant and social practice. Another and no 

 less powerful factor in the gradual decadence of such societies 

 is the recent enormous increase in the variety and circulation 

 of newspapers, reviews, and periodicals of all kinds. Most of 

 these are general, but many special, so much so that there is 

 hardly a leading science, and there certainly is no important 

 trade or industry, in the sister kingdom without its exponent 

 and reflex in the press. What the Economist is to the banker or 

 merchant ; the Engineer ) the Grocer, or the Builder to those 



