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 expediency; but further, that if you should even be unanimously disposed to confirm them, your Committee would recommend, that the several statutes, when they have been drawn up or modified, should be only entered on your minutes, and not finally enacted. All innovations in the constitution, or even the habits of the Royal Society, should be scrutinized with the most jealous circumspection. It is enough for the present Council to have traced the plan; let the Council of the ensuing sessions share the credit of carrying that plan into effect.

This Report was presented to the Council very late in the session of 1827, and on the 25th of June there occurs the following entry on the council-book:—

"The Report of the Committee for considering the best means of limiting the number of members, and such other suggestions as they may think conducive to the good of the Society, was received and read, and ordered to be entered on the minutes; and the Council, regarding the importance of the subject, and its bearings on the essential interests of the Society, in conformity with the concluding paragraph, and considering also the advanced stage of the session, recommend it to the most serious and early consideration of the Council for the ensuing year."