16 
REPORT OF THE 
The result of the changes in the laws which were made 
at the last annual meetings and of some new regulations 
adopted by the Council has been upon the whole very satis¬ 
factory. The return to the original plan of receiving written 
orders of admission at the gate has met with general appro¬ 
bation, and has removed some causes of complaint which 
formerly existed. By the system of filing the orders it has been 
found easy to check any infringement of the rule which limits 
the admissions of each member to one hundred persons. The 
extension of the hours during which the Museum and Hospitium 
are kept open through the Summer months, has not only been 
acceptable to the members of the Society, but has proved a great 
accommodation to strangers, making a short stay in York. 
By far the most important of these changes, however, is that 
which was adopted at a special general meeting, and w^hich 
allows the entrance money to be spread over three years, 
instead of being added to the first year’s subscription. To this 
change, and to the zealous exertions of Mr. Charlesworth, it 
has been chiefly owing that the accession of new members since 
the last annual meeting has exceeded the experience of any 
year, since the first establishment of the Society. Besides 
Associates and Lady Subscribers, thirty-six new Subscribers 
(including those elected this day) have been admitted. It is 
unfortunately true that this increase is in some measure 
balanced by an unusual number of deaths, resignations and 
removals during the year 1855 ; but the true mode of estima¬ 
ting its importance is to consider what the state of the Society’s 
finances would have been, if this decrease had taken place 
without any countervailing accession. The total number of 
members at the commencement of 1855 was 311; it is now 328. 
These accessions have been derived chiefly from residents in 
York, and the attention of the Council has been anxiously 
directed to the means of arresting the rapid diminution of 
county members. For this purpose it was determined to 
submit to a special general meeting, a proposition that no 
admission fee should in future be required from candidates 
residing seven miles from York. This meeting was held on 
Oct. 3rd, Lord Londesborough in the chair ; and the measure 
