XI 
PREFACE. 
FJAHE Ninth Volume of the Journal of the Transactions of 
the Victoria Institute is now issued. It will be found 
to contain contributions from the Rev. Canon Birks, Pro- 
fessor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge ; the Rev. J. L. 
Challis, F.R.S., Plumian Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge; 
Principal J. W. Dawson, F.R.S. ; Mr. E. W. Gosse; Mr. J. E. 
Howard, E.R.S.; the Rev. Prebendary W. J. Irons, D.D. ; 
Rev. A. I. McCaul, M.A., Lecturer in Hebrew at King’s 
College, London ; Mr. G. S. Morris, Professor of Modern 
Languages and Literature at Michigan University ; Dr. H. A. 
Nicholson, Professor of Natural History at St. Andrew’s 
University; the Rev. B. W. Savile, M.A., — the value of 
whose paper is enhanced by the remarks of Dr. S. Birch, 
President of the Society of Biblical Arclneology; — the Rev. 
R. Thornton, D.D. ; and Canon Titcomb, M.A. 
The increasing outside demand for the “Transactions” of 
the Institute may be taken as a certain indication of the 
esteem in which they are held as they become more known. 
It is gratifying to observe that some of the papers in the 
Journal have been translated, and that many are now used as 
the bases of lectures : this has begun to be the case even 
in India, where translations of English literature advocating 
