15 
done in any society of this kind than it has been done in the Victoria 
Institute. (Cheers.) 
The Chairman. — Before the Address is read, it is customary to ask if any 
member has anything to urge, or any remarks to make, in regard to the general 
management of the Institute ? 
Dr. E. Haughton rose and proposed a resolution, which not being 
seconded, fell to the ground. 
The original motion was then put to the meeting, and unanimously 
agreed to. 
The Honorary Secretary. — I have to move the following resolution : — 
“ That all moneys received on account of the Institute be paid in the ordinary 
manner into the bankers’, and that all cheques shall be drawn under the 
authority of the Council.” This is the custom in the Institute, but there is no 
bye-law to that effect. I also propose, in regard to the Auditors, “ that one 
Auditor be on the Council, and that the other may be elected from among 
the Members and Associates who are not on the Council.” 
Mr. A. V. Newton. — I second the motion. It merely makes two formal 
alterations in our laws which require no argument. 
The resolution was then agreed to. 
The Rev. Robinson Thornton, D.D., Vice-President, then delivered 
the following Address : — 
ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
I. A STRANGE kind of wonder seems to pervade us as 
Ji.V we pass through some complete and well-arranged 
collection of arms, and note the various instruments of offence 
and defence which it exhibits to our view. Brought face to 
face with a series, historically arranged, of practical develop- 
ments of the least amiable portion of human nature, we are 
amazed at the great variety of the means employed in each 
age to work out, or to impede, the same unhappy end. We 
begin with clumsy and ponderous maces, spears, and axes, 
whose uncouth forms tell of violence more than skill, and the 
equally ponderous helm and hauberk, forged with equal 
labour, and equal lack of artistic refinement, to encounter 
them. Then come the weapons borne by warriors of a more 
advanced and artistic age ; lighter, yet from their very light- 
ness more difficult to ward off, and so calling forth from the 
artisan of defence an exertion of skill and judgment more 
than equal to that of him who constructed them, and far above 
that of the armourer of earlier and ruder times. And so we 
are led on, step by step, to our own days, when the science of 
destruction and preservation seems almost to be surpassing 
