iv  Report  to  the  General  Meeting. 
The  Council  have  directed  a new  list  of  the  Governors  and 
Members  of  the  Society  to  be  printed  and  published  as  an  Ap- 
pendix to  the  ensuing  part  of  the  Journal. 
Among  the  deaths  recorded,  the  Council  regret  to  specify  that 
of  their  venerable  Member,  Mr.  Hillyard,  one  of  the  founders  of 
the  Society,  and  a constant  attendant,  to  within  a very  short 
period  of  his  decease,  at  their  various  meetings.  The  Council 
have  filled  up  the  vacancy  in  their  body,  occasioned  by  his  la- 
mented loss,  by  the  election  of  Mr.  Sillifant.  They  have  also 
elected  Mr.  Simpson  a Member  of  Council,  in  the  place  of  the 
Earl  of  Lovelace  (whose  present  engagements  prevent  his  due 
attendance),  and  Lord  Camoys  a Member  of  their  body,  in  the 
place  of  the  late  Mr.  Limbers. 
The  Council  reported  at  the  General  Meeting  in  May,  last 
year,  that  they  had  altered  the  by-law  regulating  the  week-day  of 
their  ordinary  meetings  from  Wednesday  to  Tuesday;  they  have, 
however,  after  experience  of  that  change,  decided  to  revert,  after 
the  end  of  the  current  year,  to  the  original  day  for  their  meet- 
ings, namely,  to  the  Wednesday,  as  more  generally  convenient  to 
all  parties. 
Finances. — The  Council  have  had  under  their  most  serious 
consideration  the  question  they  have  been  so  often  under  the 
painful  necessity  of  bringing  under  the  notice  of  the  Members, 
namely,  that  of  the  arrears  of  subscription  remaining  unpaid  to 
the  Society.  The  Council  have  taken  every  ordinary  means  in 
their  power  to  awaken  the  Members,  from  whom  these  arrears 
are  due,  to  a sense  of  their  engagements  to  the  Society,  by  re- 
peated circular  letters,  by  an  attempted  system  of  local  collection, 
by  personal  communications  kindly  made  to  the  parties  by  zealous 
Members  of  the  Council,  by  suspension  of  their  names  in  the 
public  Council-room,  and  in  some  cases  by  application  made  to 
them  by  the  solicitors  of  the  Society.  These  means  having 
proved  successful  only  to  a certain  extent,  the  Council  have  re- 
quested a scrutiny  to  be  made  into  the  circumstances  of  the 
individuals  who  thus  neglect  to  comply  with  the  just  claims  of  the 
Society ; and  they  find  that  no  plea,  in  the  great  majority  of  the 
