85 



I cannot conclude this Address, Gentlemen, without again request- 

 ing you to accept my assurances of the sense which I enteitain of 

 the high honour of presiding over this Society, and of my determi- 

 nation to promote its interests to the utmost of my power and ability, 

 in case it should be your pleasure to confide them again to my keep- 

 ing, by electing me a second time to fill this chair. 



Report of the Council to the Anniversary Meeting on St. Andrew's 



Day, 1831. * 



The Council, to whom the Society has confided the management 

 of its affairs during the past year, in giving an account of the man- 

 ner in which they have endeavoured to discharge that trust, have 

 in the first place to congratulate the Society upon the honour w T hich 

 has been conferred upon them by His present Majesty's having 

 been graciously pleased to become the Patron of the Society, and 

 by his having expressed a warm interest in its prosperity. 



They wish, in the next place, to call the attention of the Society 

 to the alterations they have made in the Statutes. It has for some 

 time past appeared desirable that the Statutes should undergo a 

 thorough revision with a view to their improvement and adaptation 

 to the present state of the Society. The Council, anxious to ac- 

 complish this important object in the most effective manner with 

 respect to the permanent interests of the Society, solicited the 

 assistance of such of the Fellows as seemed to be most able, as well 

 as willing, to give them the benefit of their valuable advice and co- 

 operation in the performance of this difficult task. Three members 

 of their own body having, on this occasion, intimated their inability 

 to attend, from the pressure of other avocations, and their wish, 

 in consequence, to retire from the Council, the Society was called 

 upon to supply the vacancies occasioned by these resignations. 

 The number of the Council being completed by these new elec- 

 tions, twenty-one other Fellows (a number equal to their own) were 

 selected from the Society, for the purpose of composing with the 

 Council a Committee of forty-two members for preparing the re- 

 quisite emendations in the Statutes, and also for inquiring whether 

 it might be advisable to propose any alterations in the existing 

 Charter of the Society. 



This Committee held several meetings for the discussion of these 

 subjects. It was found upon investigation, that several improve- 

 ments which were suggested could not be effected consistently with 

 the powers granted by the present Charter : and it was finally 

 agreed that the advantages to be expected from those changes 

 would be more than compensated by the difficulties and expenses 

 that would attend the procuring of a new Charter. The Committee, 

 therefore, proceeded to direct their attention to the effecting of 

 such emendations of the Statutes as were compatible with the 

 powers granted by the Charter, and which appeared to afford ample 

 means for the introduction of much improvement. Many of the 

 Statutes which, in the course of time, had become no longer con- 



