Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/287

 ANNUAL LONDON MEETING. 199 In presenting to the Society their customary Annual Report, tlie Central Committee took occasion to express the satisfaction with which they regarded the steady onward progress of the Institute, during the previous year ; and the encouraging advance which the science of Archaeology had made in public estimation. They adverted to the completion of the Sixth Volume of the Journal, and the gratifying assurance received from the members, that the labours of the Editing Committee had met with general approval. The circumstances which combined, early in the year, to bring the publi- cation more entirely under their control, and led to the more convenient arrangement of its being printed in London, had been attended with much advantage, especially in enabling the committee to adopt the plan of a gratuitous distribution of the Journal to the members. The regular quarterly delivery of that publication, by such arrangement, in lieu of the Volume of Transactions at the Annual Meeting, had been earnestly desired by many members of the Institute. The Committee had the gratification to state that the change had, after the trial of a year, full}' realised their expectations, and been attended with the most encouraging assurances of the approval of the Society, and the satisfaction with which the contents and illustrations of the Journal had been received. The Committee alluded to the convenience and advantage derived since the commencement of the present session, in the facility for holding the monthly meetings at the apartments of the Society ; although inferior in extent of accommodation to the admirably arranged theatre, previously placed at their disposal by the kindness of the Institute of Civil Engineers, no slight benefit had accrued in many respects from this arrangement, and especially in the convenience and security with which numerous valuable objects, entrusted for exhibition, were now displayed, not during the brief time only occupied by their meetings, but in many cases during several days ; these objects being left for the gratification of the members, in the Society's rooms. The Report stated the satisfaction and utility attending the rapid increase of the Library and General Collections of the Institute, by the numerous new works presented from time to time ; and especially by the valuable acces- sion of Memoirs, and periodical publications of various kindred societies, both at home and on the continents of Europe and America, with which friendly relations and exchange of Transactions had been established. The new arrangement, unanimously adopted at the annual meeting of the previous year, requiring from new members, in accordance with the custom established by other societies, an entrance fee (of one guinea) appropriated to a library fund, had enabled the committee to enrich the collection with various periodical and other works of reference, not generally accessible. The advantages thereby derived, were not only of high utility in the facilities for comparison of ancient remains brought before the Society, but had been extensively available to the members at large, and even to those resident in the country, who have taken advantage, in visiting the Metropolis, of the occasion thus afibrded them of learning the progress of Archaeological research in our own and foreign countries. The Committee alluded to the last annual meeting, — to the bright promise of success at Salisbury, which had been clouded by the severe dispensation with which that city had been visited, when it was too late to postpone the assembly. The disadvantage, however, was not felt to the degree that had been apprehended, and the Auditors* Report will shew that VOL. VIT. I) D