THE PRESIDENT^ ADDRESS. 
209 
essay of considerable value, one often quoted and acknowledged, 
and perhaps still oftener made use of without acknowledgment ; 
on the " Birds of Devon/' a contribution to the local fauna when 
investigations of the kind were rare, and which evidenced not only 
an intimate acquaintance with that portion of our Natural History, 
but, for it appeared before Yarrell's History of British Birds, 
also a clear idea of scientific arrangement which made it at that 
time a model list ; and lastly " The Antiquarian Investigations in 
the Forest of Dartmoor," which led to further researches, and 
eventually to the publication of the Perambulation of Dartmoor. 
We have, therefore, a good precedent to follow. It says much for 
the wisdom of our predecessors, who at a time that matters relating 
strictly to a particular locality did not receive the attention they 
have since, gave such prominence to these papers. 
Devonshire just now requires especial attention in this direction; 
for while in Cornwall there is more than one Society which pub- 
lishes Transactions, in this county besides our own there is only 
one, the finances of which are taxed to the uttermost in printing 
the various communications — not all perhaps of equal value, 
but all worthy of preservation — which are made at its annual 
meeting. 
I said just now that there was no difficulty in giving to 
the world papers which related to general subjects, and that a 
Society such as this ought not to be burdened with the cost 
entailed in the publication of what was not strictly local. The 
daily newspaper, the weekly journal, the monthly periodical, 
among which may be mentioned as the most valuable, the Con- 
temporary Review, the Nineteenth Century, and the Fortnightly 
Review, are channels available among others for this purpose. 
Papers which now find a place within the covers of these, in 
former times had no chance of being brought to the knowledge of 
the many, save through the agency of societies such as ours. And 
it is the same with the general work of the Society, and it does not, 
I think, altogether fulfil the mission which was had in view when 
it was established. In 1812 there was nothing answering to the 
periodicals to which I have referred ; the newspapers were, — well 
not what they are at present. True there were some newspapers, and 
there was also the Gentleman y s Magazine, and the Quarterly and 
Edinburgh Reviews, but they were expensive, and the reading of 
them was confined to the few. The weekly essay from the desk 
VOL. VII. o 
