THE COUNCIL. 
13 
and able services of Mr. Pritchett have been of the utmost 
consequence, both to the execution and economy of the 
work. He has devoted much of his valuable time to the 
meetings of the Committee, and has given his gratuitous 
advice and superintendence on every occasion on which his 
judgement and experience could be useful.” 
From this Report, then, it appears that the expenses 
incurred by the Society amount to nearly 9800/. The fund 
which is available to answer that demand is about 8300/., 
thus leaving a debt of 1500/.; a debt which will undoubtedly 
prove a heavy incumbrance, if means cannot be devised for 
paying it off. In the present state of our annual income, we 
may indeed defray the interest of such a debt, and still go on. 
—But let the meeting consider in what manner we shall go 
on, as respects the character and utility of the Institution. 
We may go on—giving a salary of sixty pounds a year to the 
Keeper of the Museum : and would any member of the 
Society wish to retain his services on such inadequate terms 2 
We may go on—but with an unfurnished Laboratory, and a 
Library to which the naturalist or the antiquary would refer 
in vain. We may go on—but we must leave to others to 
explore, even in our own county, the mysteries of nature, 
and to collect the monuments of art. 
The Society, in short, is not insolvent, but it is deeply 
embarrassed ; and the effect of that embarrassment upon it at 
present is this, that it is compelled to be parsimonious in 
