PREFACE. 
T N issuing the sixth volume of the Journal of the Trans - 
-L actions of the Victoria Institute — now commencing 
the eighth year since its organization — some remarks on the 
present position of the Institute will not be out of place. 
In the Preface to the fifth volume the following statement 
was made : — <c After a full review of the requirements of the 
Institute, and of all it is now called upon to do on behalf of 
the cause advocated, it appears that when the number of 
Members and Associates has been raised to five hundred (of 
which not more than one hundred should be Associates) the 
Society may be considered adequate to accomplish its objects, 
and placed in the position so desirable that it should hold. 
The necessity for action in this matter will, it is hoped, press 
itself on each Member and Associate.”* 
It will be no small gratification to the Members and Asso- 
ciates, whose firm support has greatly tended to the 
Institute's strength and stability, to be informed that one 
hundred and fourteen Members and Associates joined during 
the past year ; among whom are several professors of Oxford, 
Cambridge, and other Universities. The total strength of the 
Institute is now upwards of four hundred, having become 
more than double in two years. It will, however, be observed 
that further effort is necessary ere the required number is 
attained. 
The demand for the Institute's publications is rapidly in- 
creasing. 
Vide the speech of the Right Rev. the Bishop of Gloucester and 
ristol, page 314. 
