■¥4 Anniversary Meeting. [Nov. 30, 



intimate connexion with us, bequeathed a sum of .£500 in augmentation 

 of the Donation Fund. 



The Election Statutes. — At our Anniversary of last year the attention 

 of the Meeting was called by Dr. Williams to the present limitation 

 in the election of ordinary Fellows ; and though no action was taken 

 at the time, the subject appeared to me to be one so deeply affecting 

 the interests of the Society, that I did not hesitate to take the earliest 

 opportunity of submitting it to the deliberations of the Council. This 

 resulted in the appointment of a Committee to consider the whole ques- 

 tion of the " Election Statutes." 



In the mean time Dr. Williams addressed to myself a letter embody- 

 ing his views on the subject, which, having been printed and circulated 

 throughout the Society, requires my acknowledgment from this Chair, 

 and is entitled to the most full and careful consideration. Therefore, 

 while disclaiming the slightest intention to criticize the letter in a hostile 

 spirit, and while fully appreciating the interest in the Society's welfare 

 which caused Dr. Williams to raise the question of a revision of the Elec- 

 tion Statutes, I feel bound to remark that I cannot think he had 

 considered the question in all its aspects, or made allowance for the 

 effects of that inability on his part, which he so candidly admits and 

 regrets, to take, during forty years' Fellowship, any active part in the 

 proceedings of the Society. 



Had it been otherwise, he would surely not, without some reservation, 

 have instanced the reduction in the number of Fellows since the present 

 rules have been in force as a loss to the Society which had not been anti- 

 cipated ; he would have been aware that the rules now in operation had 

 been approved by the Society individually and collectively, and with 

 ample deliberation, before their embodiment in the Statutes. He would also 

 have known that it was with the full knowledge and intention that such 

 a reduction would and should result from this step that the rules were 

 adopted, and that the rate and amount of reduction formed the subject of 

 investigation and report by an eminent Fellow and Statistician, Mr. Gallo- 

 way ; and lastly, that the rate of reduction, as then anticipated and taken 

 into account, has been slower than was calculated, and that our number 

 for some years to come will still be in excess of that which in 1847 was, 

 and I have reason to believe still is, thought large enough by the great 

 majority of our Fellows. 



Again, it is undoubtedly under a misapprehension that it is asserted 

 that the general result of the present limitation in the number annually 

 elected has been the " rejection of two thirds or more of the candidates." 

 The fact is that (putting aside the application of the term " rejection " to 

 that which, in the majority of cases, is merely "postponement") two thirds 

 of all whose names have been suspended have actually been elected, not 

 rejected ; and the average duration of suspension of the elected candidates 



