Report to the General Meeting. 
xxix 
The Coiincil, on mature deliberation, have resolved to strike 
out from the list of the Society the names of those members who, 
previously to the date of the Charter, attended the early country 
meetings, and paid the subscription of the then current year, for 
the temporary purpose solely of enjoying the privileges of mem- 
bership on those occasions, but without any intention of becoming 
continued members, or being aware of their liability to be called 
upon for the subscriptions of subsequent years. The cancelling 
of these claims will greatly diminish the amount of what has 
hitherto been viewed in the light of arrears, while, at the same 
time, no inconvenient precedent will have been established. 
In the official department of the Society, the rapid increase in 
the amount of correspondence with so large a number of members, 
and the reception and accumulation of documents of every kind 
in the various branches of the current business of the Society, 
along with the multiplicity of accounts and numerous details re- 
quiring daily attention and great exactness, have rendered further 
aid indispensable to enable the Secretary to meet and discharge, 
satisfactorily to himself and to the members, the increasing duties 
and responsibilities of his office ; and in consequence of the 
Finance Committee's Report, the Council have made a perma- 
nent addition of two clerks to be placed under his control ; suit- 
able arrangements having also been effected in the convenient 
adaptation of the offices to the purposes of the daily transaction 
of business. 
The Council have obtained, on reasonable conditions, a lease 
of the Society's present house, for a term of ninety-nine years, at 
an annual rent of 330/., the counterpart of which has been duly 
executed, and the common seal of the Society affixed, in the pre- 
sence of the Council, agreeably with the powers of the Charter. 
The Bristol Balance Sheet has been before the Council, and 
the sum of 573/. ordered to be paid out of the funds of the Society 
to meet the deficiency to that amount, occasioned by the excess of 
the expenditure over the receipts at that meeting. 
The General Derby Committee have nearly completed their 
arrangements for the meeting to be held at that town in July; 
