REPORT, 
PRESENTED BY THE COUNCIL TO THE ANNUAL MEETING, 
FEBRUARY THE FIFTH^ 
M.DCCC.XXVm. 
The Council have had occasion, on former anniversa¬ 
ries, to congratulate the Society on the retrospect of the 
preceding year; but never, since the commencement of the 
Institution, have they been enabled to render so prosperous 
an account of its progress, as in the Report which they have 
now the honour of submitting to the Meeting. 
To complete the design which the Society originally 
contemplated, it has always been felt by its members to be 
essentially requisite, that an edifice should be erected of such 
a character and such dimensions, as might befit a County 
Museum : and the Council have first to call the attention of 
the Meeting, to the proceedings by which they have advanced 
towards the accomplishment of this great object. 
The possibility of accomplishing it in a satisfactory manner, 
appeared to them, from the first, to rest upon the success of the 
