president's addkess. 253 



that most unvarying courtesy and attention that I have at all 

 times, and especially during my year of Presidency, received at 

 the hands of each and all of them. The position which the Field 

 Club has now attained must he attributed chiefly to the active 

 and continued exertions of the Committee, and especially of the 

 Treasurer and Secretaries. But while all these are deserving of 

 our warmest thanks, I cannot forbear singling out the name of 

 one gentleman, because I believe that his services to us are little 

 appreciated by the members generally. Indeed, it is only since 

 I commenced the preparation of my address, that, having had 

 occasion to examine carefully the accounts of the Club, as kept 

 from the commencement to the present period, I have myself 

 become aware how from time to time the degree of its prosperity 

 has fluctuated, and been apparently dependant upon the activity 

 and efficiency of the Treasurer. In 1857 Mr. Green kindly un- 

 dertook that office, and from that year dates a marked improve- 

 ment in our financial position, an improvement which, during the 

 nine years which have since elapsed, has been continuously pro- 

 gressive. Mr. Green's work has not been the less valuable to 

 us because it has been work done in his study. He has been 

 content to do us a great amount of good unknown to ourselves. 

 Once a year he has stood up at the Anniversary Meetings and 

 read a short summary of those accounts which he has kept, and 

 sat down again ; and that is all that we have seen or heard of his 

 labours. But after the careful investigation which I have made 

 into the accounts of the Club, and the strong impression which 

 that scrutiny has left upon my mind, I feel that I should be 

 greatly wanting in what was due to you and to him did I not 

 seize this opportunity of testifying to the value of the services 

 which Mr. Green has rendered us, and of signifying my sense of 

 the debt of gratitude which we owe him. 



The same satisfactory progress, which we have seen to be 

 marked by the increase in the number of our members, and the 

 funds at the disposal of the Club, is evidenced also in the publi- 

 cation of our Transactions. There have now been circulated six 

 volumes and the first part of a seventh, containing in all 2304 

 pages of letter-press, illustrated with eighty plates. Each of the 



