9. Finance.

The financial condition of the Institute still engages the attention of the Council. As a Society we feel the effects of the commercial depression in the City and the Country at large. Indeed some of our Members and Associates, from no waning interest in the objects and work of the Institute, but in order to retrench, have been obliged to resign their Membership, which, with losses through death, fully accounts for the small decrease in our Numbers noted above, in spite of an increase of nearly fifty new names to our list. The Council are adopting measures to lessen our printing expenses, which last year amounted to £424 odd, but fear that they will have once more to make a special appeal to their supporters to tide them over the present time of stress, which all hope and believe to be only temporary. Our Treasurer for some years past, Mr. Arthur W. Sutton, J.P., F.L.S., Member of Council, has found himself obliged, for reasons of health, to resign his post. The best thanks of the Council are due to him for all his kind interest and help in the work of the Institute, and they express their hope that he will soon be able to take his place with them once more at Council Meetings. Mr. George A. King, M.A. has kindly consented to fill the vacant post.

10. Special Donations.

The following special donations have been received: Miss F. Helen Freeman, £2 2s.; The Venerable Archdeacon J. P. Kempthorne, £10; and Miss Caroline Tindall, £1 1s.

11.

The sale of "Tracts for New Times" has continued to give satisfaction. The Council has just issued a reprint of No. 5 “ The Bearing of Archæological and Historical Research upon the New Testament," by the Rev. Parke P. FLOURNOY, D.D., the supply of which was exhausted. They have also issued three new Tracts forming Nos. 7, 8 and 9 of the series:

7.-" Modern Unrest and the Bible," by Sir ANDREW WINGATE, K.C.I.E.

8.- "The Attitude of Science towards Miracles," by the late Prof. LANGHORNE ORCHARD, M.A., B.Sc. (being the Gunning Prize for 1909)

9.- The Old Testament and the Present State of Criticism," by the Very Rev. H. WACE, D.D., Dean of Canterbury.

Tract No. 5 has been translated into Portuguese for the Brazilians, and Slavic for the Czechoslovakians and Slavs. It is now being translated into Chinese by Dr. H. M. Woods of the American Chinese Mission.

12. Conclusion.

In conclusion, the Council are persuaded that as the years go by, the need for such a work as that of the Victoria Institute becomes no less urgent. Our Society stands for "investigation" it is true, but "investigation in a reverent spirit." If, as one of our Vice Presidents, the late Dr. Handley Moule of Durham, wrote,* these conclusions (i.e. the negations of Modernism) are demanded by irrefutable fact let them be made and accepted. But not (I repeat) light-heartedly, and as if we were the freer for them and could talk glibly about them in the best modern style. Let us make them with a groan and take care to carve no more unauthentic promise on the tomb of our beloved 1. The matter is one, where, while the fairness of controversy must be guarded, as ever, its mere courtesies may not always be in place. For the question is of tremendous urgency. "We are contending for our all." These weighty words apply to other phases of contemporary thought, besides the theological. We share the faith of the learned bishop that the victory lies, not with those who would destroy faith, but with those who would establish it, "For we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth."

Signed on behalf of the Council

H. WACE, D.D.,

President.

*Preface to " The Bible and Modern Criticism" p. x, by Sir Robert Anderson, K.C.B.

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT.

THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

OF THE

VICTORIA INSTITUTE

WAS HELD IN COMMITTEE ROOM B., THE CENTRAL HALL, WESTMINSTER, ON MONDAY, MAY 15th, 1922, AT 3 P.M.

ALFRED W. ОKE, ESQ., B.A., LL.M., Vice-Chairman of

Council,

TOOK THE CHAIR.

The CHAIRMAN called on the Honorary Secretary to read the notice convoking the meeting, and then to read the minutes of the last meeting, held on Monday, April 18th, which were confirmed and signed. The Chairman then proposed that, as the report was in the hands of the meeting, it should be taken as read, and Mr. E. Luff Smith, the auditor, was called upon to explain the Financial Report. While expressing a reasonable hope that Mr. Lance Gray, Member of Council, would be able to effect some economies in the expenditure, he emphasised the fact that the financial position of the Institute was unsatisfactory, and must be put on a more satisfactory basis.

The CHAIRMAN then moved the adoption of the Report. He referred to the great loss the Institute had sustained in the death of the Earl of Halsbury, but voiced the gratification of the Council in obtaining, as his successor, the Dean of Canterbury, whose many lectures, years ago, the Chairman had attended.

Reference was also made, with regret, to the retirement of Mr. Arthur W. Sutton, Treasurer for many years, also to that of Mr. E. J. Sewell, long a member of Council, both on account of ill-health, and to the death of a Vice-President, Professor H.