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time in succession, therefore, I now appear before you with the annual 
presidential address. But on the present occasion I do so with feel¬ 
ings somewhat different from those which I have experienced on the 
previous ones, inasmuch as I am now obliged to say “ Farewell ”— 
not, however, I am glad to say, to my confreres of the “ City of London 
Entomological and Natural History Society,” but only to the chair 
which has held me a not unwilling captive during the past four years. 
Indeed, it is not without very mingled feelings that I am now vacating 
the position which your unfailing courtesy and kindness have made it 
so great a pleasure and so slight a burden to occupy throughout this 
period, and I can assure you that no mere hasty impulse should have 
allowed me to quit it, but that I find duties and engagements are so 
thickening around me that I cannot conscientiously promise to give all 
the time and thought which I feel every president who is worthy of 
his position owes to his society. Still, I hope to continue a fairly 
regular attendant at the meetings under the presidency of my worthy 
successor, Mr. A. W. Mera, a very old friend of this Society, and—I 
am glad to be able to add—of myself personally, a thorough and 
painstaking entomologist, and a most kindhearted and genial man— 
one whose natural modest and unassuming disposition has, perhaps, 
prevented his becoming well known to so wide a circle of us as might 
have been wished, but who certainly has not a single enemy in the 
society, nor a suspicion of one, but who will, I have every confidence, 
be able to guide its affairs smoothly and effectively. 
Under the special circumstances wherein I appear before you this 
evening, I trust you will pardon my lingering a little on the purely 
personal element ; I feel that I cannot vacate the chair without 
giving expression to my sense of indebtedness to all the officers and 
Council for their kindly sympathy and co-operation. If I may single 
out some, where all have deserved my thanks, I must mention espe¬ 
cially our two able and energetic secretaries, each of whom, in his own 
department, has done such excellent work for the Society at large, 
and in this way earned the gratitude of one who has its welfare so 
much at heart as myself—to say nothing of the very cordial relations 
which exist between us personally. I have indeed been fortunate in 
having the co-operation of so good a reporting secretary as Mr. W. J. 
Kaye, F.E.S., and not less so in that of so capable and businesslike 
an organizer and corresponding secretary as Mr. S. J. Bell; and 1 
congratulate the Society, and myself as a member of it, on our good 
fortune in retaining their services for the coming year. 
Of statistics and matters of finance, you will have learned from 
the reports of our secretaries and treasurer. It is to be regretted 
that our membership-roll does not go forward with the rapidity which 
might be expected from our favourable position, our exceptionally 
comfortable accommodation, and, 1 think I may add, the general 
interest of our meetings and the high standard of our work. But this 
feeling of regret is tempered with not a little satisfaction that some 
healthy “ new blood ” has been infused during the past year, and that 
there are many signs of vigorous activity amongst us. When one 
looks through the list of sponsors for the nomination of new members, 
however, one is struck by the small number of those to whom this 
important duty seems to be left, and one cannot help wondering 
whether the majority of our members are really making all the effort 
