THE COUNCIL. 
U 
which was increased to supply copies for an extended distri¬ 
bution of the Report,) and for other Incidents, would scarcely 
have intrenched on the income of 1826, if the expectations 
entertained with regard to the Lectures had been realized. 
In 1824 the Lecture account left a balance of forty pounds in 
favour of the Societv : of the three courses delivered in the 
«/ 
last year,* the expenditure amounted to two hundred and forty- 
three pounds, and the receipts to one hundred and ninety- 
three, leaving a deficiency of fifty pounds, where a profit had 
been expected. 
It is obvious, however, that on the account of the two years, 
the Society’s loss is inconsiderable; and the Council have not 
been discouraged by the present defalcation, from per¬ 
severing in the employment of these means for the diffusion 
of scientific information. The experiment of providing 
Lectures for the public in this district is new, and, in the con¬ 
duct of it, errors are at first unavoidable. Anxiety to reduce 
the price of knowledge, occasioned the terms of admission to 
be fixed at a rate unusually low; the desire of extending the 
opportunity ofinstruction to every class of Society, led to the 
expense of evening repetitions of the two most practical 
Courses ; and circumstances not under the control of the 
Council, produced the disadvantage of too prolonged a suc¬ 
cession of Lectures. In the delivery of the Course at present 
contemplated, little risk of loss is to be apprehended. The 
natural history of the Organized and once animated Remains 
of the Fossil World, is a subject eminently calculated to excite 
the curiosity of inquisitive minds ; and the Council trust that 
the success of Mr. Phillips’s Lectures will shortly justify 
the opinion which they still entertain, that talent and 
* On Geology, on Natural Philosophy, and on Experimental Chemistry. 
