4 
REPORT OF 
not been discharged by the Society ; and it appears desirable 
that these arrangements should be put upon a more satisfac¬ 
tory footing. 
The value of such an establishment in fostering and dif¬ 
fusing a taste for astronomical researches, was exemplified in 
two instructive lectures on Cometary Astronomy delivered to 
the Society by Mr. Newman ; and the Council confidently 
anticipates from the zeal and information of several of the 
Members of the Society, a succession of instructive discourses 
on this and other branches of science during the next session. 
It has been the wish, both of the Council and of the gentle¬ 
men alluded to, that the admission to these lectures should 
be gratuitous, at least to Members of the Society; it has 
however been suggested that the opportunity should not be 
lost, of endeavouring by such means to provide funds for the 
liquidation of the observatory debt, should this Meeting not 
think it proper to direct the immediate settlement of that 
account, and to become the rightful and real possessors of 
the edifice and the valuable instruments which it now contains, 
and may hereafter receive by private liberality. * 
.During the week of the Musical Festival, which took place 
in September, it was thought advisable to adopt every means 
of rendering the Museum and gardens accessible to the nu¬ 
merous and respectable strangers then assembled in York ; 
but as an indiscriminate admission within its gates appeared 
wholly incompatible with quiet and good order, and inconsis¬ 
tent with the general spirit of the Institution, Tickets were 
prepared, at a small price, for the use of those persons who 
failed to provide themselves with the regular introduction of a 
Member. About one thousand persons testified, by the pur¬ 
chase of these tickets, their sense of the convenience of the 
arrangement; and thus without in the smallest degree in- 
* It was resolved by the Annual Meeting that the debt on the 
Observatory should he discharged out of the Society’s funds. 
