has especially consulted, by the provision of a comfortable room, open daily from 9 to 5.*

They might also mention several instances where, during the period referred to, advice has been given either by your Committee, or by individuals composing it and they would especially beg all persons to remember that the quiet workings of such a Society, and the advice which may be given from time to time, without any formal application being made to your Committee, are perhaps, for many reasons, the most valuable acts of the Society.

There are at present applications for grants to two Churches where Restorations are in operation or in contemplation. And the almost daily enquiries on different, and apparently trivial subjects, connected with the decency and order of the Church Service, give ample proof that such a Society is much needed, and afford a hope that where attention is paid to minor matters, great and more important improvements will not long be neglected.

These, then, have been the principal acts of your Committee during the year 1845, and it rests with you to judge whether they are such as to justify the assertion that the Society has been working out the legitimate objects of its institution, though not to that extent which they could wish.

* Members are requested to recollect that this room is open for their use, and that they will find ample provision for their consulting the Books, Drawings, &c., belonging to the Society.

Only two new members have been added to the Society; and it is with much regret that your Committee have to announce the loss of sixteen members-three by death, and thirteen by defection. It would be dishonest in your Committee to disguise the fact that the reason assigned for most of these defections has been the insufficiency or inactivity of the Society; and this fact brings with it not less encouragement than pain for if, as we stated at the commencement, such active superintendence be required, it is the surest proof that such a Society is wanted, and that that want is felt and acknowledged by these very persons.

It is painful, however, to think that we should lose those whose estimate of the requirements of the Society is so high and so just, and from whom therefore we might fairly expect to derive such active assistance and support.

We only beg all persons to give a careful consideration to the circumstances of this Society-to suggest any means for increasing its activity and its usefulness -to make those allowances which every human Society (however high its objects and intentions) requires, and to remember that it is neither reasonable nor desirable that such a Society should be so public and notorious in its acts as to partake of the business-like bustle of the world around; or to return that visible profit from its operations which the habits of a commercial city may induce many to expect.

April 29.

Wm. Strong, for Rent, &c.

15 11

0

Donations of Books, Drawings, or Engravings, are earnestly solicited, for the formation of an Architectural, Archæological, and Heraldic Library.

Members are reminded that Subscriptions are due on the 1st of January, for the ensuing year, and are requested to pay those which are due for the present year.

ECCLES J. CARTER, Hon. Sec.

10, COLLEGE GREEN, BRISTOL.

miles from the city, has rendered it impossible for him to discharge the functions of his office with that active personal superintendence which we shall see that the affairs of this Society seem at present to demand. His previous connection with the Mother of Architectural Societies, as they exist in their present form and for their present purposes, rendered him peculiarly fit for the office which he held in this Society; and though your Committee have only received his formal resignation subsequent to the period which this Report is intended to embrace, yet for the reasons above mentioned, his services were virtually lost to the Society long before this time.

Together with his resignation, reluctantly tendered, he has expressed to your Committee his warm interest in this Society, and his anxiety to act in his present position in any manner which may promote its welfare.

It is hoped that your Committee may with truth affirm, that pressing and almost overwhelming engagements in their respective spheres of duty, have prevented many of those who are calculated to be the most useful members of this Society from joining as closely and as frequently in its proceedings as it was their anxious desire to do. And if the acts of your Committee for the last year appear insignificant, or less important than might be expected, it must be attributed to the fact, that the most desirable members of every acting Committee, and those most able to give advice in it, are those who are most constantly