They cannot conclude their Report without expressing their unfeigned regret at the absence this evening of the President, owing to prolonged and severe ilness. They hope that it may not be long before he is fully restored to his usual health, and enabled to contribute as actively to the Society's proceedings as he has always hitherto done.

The Report of the Council having been approved by the Meeting, the Hon. Secretary read the following Address from the President, who was prevented by illness from being present.

Address to the Tenth Annual General Meeting of the Huguenot Society of London. By the RIGHT HON. SIR HENRY A. LAYARD, G.C.B., President:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In addressing you this evening, I must in the first place express my great regret at not having been able (owing to absence from England) to be with you at any of the Society's Meetings, since the very enjoyable one we held at Colchester in the summer of 1892. I had quite hoped to attend our Annual General Meeting last year, but illness unfortunately prevented my doing so, and at the last moment I was obliged to request your Vice-President, Sir Henry Peek, to take my place and read to you the Address which I had looked forward to delivering myself on that occasion. I would take this opportunity of publicly expressing to Sir Henry Peek my thanks for the very kind way in which he so readily, and to your great advantage, came to my help in this matter.

The

A few weeks ago I little thought that I should have to make my excuses to you, not only for my absence last year, but for my failing to meet you this evening also. I can hardly tell you how grievously disappointed I am at being again prevented from taking my place amongst you to-night and properly discharging my duty as your President. disappointment is, if possible, intensified by the feeling that on this occasion there are not hundreds of miles intervening between us as was the case last May, but that I am here in London close by, and yet absolutely unable to come amongst you. But I shall, in thought, follow all your proceedings this evening, and must trust to your kindly forbearance to pardon not only my personal absence, but also the imperfections of the very brief Address which is all that I have strength to send for your acceptance.

It has been said (and, I think, with a good deal of truth) that "happy are the people who have no history"; and, looking back upon the past year, it seems that this old saying may be very appropriately applied to our Society. The twelve months that have elapsed since the last General Meeting have been singularly uneventful, both as regards the Huguenot Society of London and the various other Huguenot Societies on the Continent and in America. I consequently have not the usual numerous items of interest to dwell upon in noticing the work that has been accomplished by our foreign colleagues and by ourselves. On the other hand, I am happy to feel able to congratulate you on the comparative immunity of our Society from the heavy losses which I understand have been so universal amongst other historical and literary Societies in this country during the past year. Several, indeed, of our members, I am sorry to say, have been taken from us by death, but on the whole we have reason to be well satisfied with the numbers we have been able to maintain. As you have just heard by the Report of the Council, we now have

on

our books 357 subscribing Fellows and 17 Honorary Fellows, and I hope that during the coming year many others may join us. Let me again impress upon you, as I have so often before done, that we should one and all do our best to persuade our Huguenot and antiquarian friends to unite with us in pushing forward the very large amount of work we have undertaken; work which needs not only a steady increase of funds, but also a steady increase of workers.

You will recollect that in the earlier half of last year we were able to issue two volumes of the quarto series of publications instead of only one; and the Council have consequently deemed it advisable to let a longer interval than usual elapse before issuing the next volume of this series. That volume, is however, far advanced towards completion and is, moreover, I am pleased to say, already partially paid for, and we may expect to have it placed in our hands early in the autumn. It will contain the continuation and, I believe, completion of the Canterbury Registers which are being so carefully edited for us by Mr. Hovenden, and which are amongst the most useful and interesting of these old Huguenot records.

We also have in the press, for issue in 1895, the first volume of the very important Registers of the Threadneedle Street Church, under the editorship of Mr. Moens. I have been much concerned to hear that, owing to a prolonged and

serious illness, Mr. Moens has lately been quite unable to attend to this or any other work; but I am glad to hear he is now recovering, and I hope he may speedily be well enough to resume the labours he has so kindly undertaken in our behalf.

Within the next few days we shall receive the concluding number of the fourth volume of our Proceedings, in which will be found an interesting account of the Westminster French School by Mr. Beaufort. This should appeal strongly to our Huguenot sympathies, both as a record of the past and as treating of an institution still existing and doing much good work in a quiet, but thoroughly efficient way.

Having regard to the number of these publications and the very considerable expenditure of time and labour which they involve, I think we may fairly say that we are kept well supplied with much very solid reading; and I am quite sure you will gladly allow me to express to the various editors and contributors our hearty thanks for enabling the Society to produce so much that is of real historical value.

Although prevented from attending, as I could wish, to my duties as your President in England, I have been doing what I could at Venice to promote the genera! objects of the Society; and as the result of my labours during the past winter I have had pleasure of placing in the hands of our Secretary a transcript and translation of some interesting MSS. in the Venetian archives. These consist of some despatches of Marc' Antonio Barbaro, the representative of the Republic at the French Court towards the close of the 16th century, which supplement those already published by the Society and, in fact, complete the series from our Huguenot point of view. These despatches were for many years entirely lost sight of, and were supposed, indeed, to have been destroyed. You can therefore imagine my pleasure when, after a long and fruitless search in the archives at Venice, I was at last rewarded by the discovery of them. I now place the transcript and my accompanying translation of it unreservedly at the disposal of the Council to deal with as they think best. It may not be thought advisable to print them in quite the same form as those already published, but at all events they will remain in our library for reference, and, I trust, be of some use and value.

The mention of these diplomatic relations between France and the Venetian Republic reminds me of the somewhat remarkable share taken by descendants of the Huguenots in

modern diplomacy. Sir Robert Morier, her Majesty's late representative at St. Petersburg, was of Huguenot descent and a Fellow of our Society. His successor, Sir Frank Lascelles, is also I believe of Huguenot origin; and so too is Sir Mortimer Durand, who has recently been appointed British Minister at the Court of Persia; whilst, in connection with this subject, you will perhaps pardon a passing allusion to my own former official residence at Madrid and Constantinople. We may also take some pride in the fact that (for the first time, so far as I am aware) a Huguenot is now Prime Minister of England.

I have said that the past year has been uneventful for our own Society, and it would seem to have been equally so for our friends abroad. We have continued, indeed, to receive several valuable publications from them, but fewer than usual. None at all have reached us from Holland or America, but the Bulletin of the Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Français has appeared each month with its accustomed regularity; and we have also had some excellent monographs from the German Huguenot Society, and the periodical publications of the Vaudois and other foreign Societies with which we are in correspondence. Scattered through their pages are many articles of considerable interest, but I do not know that I need commend any of them to your special attention. I much regret that nothing has been published lately by the Huguenot Society of America. It has, I believe, held several Meetings during the past year, at which papers of much interest and importance have been read. I venture to hope that in due time these will find their way into print, so that we on this side of the Atlantic may benefit by them.

I have unfortunately been unable to scan the items of our recent receipts and expenses as carefully as I could wish, but the experience of former years makes me feel confident that our finances have been judiciously administered, and that our Treasurer, Mr. Roumieu, has exercised his usual watchfulness over them. You must allow me the pleasure of according him our best thanks for all he has done for us, both in his own special department, and also for the general wellbeing of the Society.

I should deplore my continued absences from England, and consequently from your Meetings, even more than I do, were I not kept so constantly and fully informed as I am of all your doings and of everything of Huguenot interest occurring here and elsewhere. For this information and for much other

kind help, I gladly acknowledge my indebtedness to our Honorary Secretary, Mr. Faber, who, in so many ways and in so great a measure, contributes to the Society's welfare.

I have already alluded to the obligations we are under to the editors of our publications and the contributors of Papers for our Meetings, and in thus commending to your grateful attention the labours of others, I am rendered the more

keenly alive to my own short-comings. But I look hopefully forward, and trust that the time may not be far distant when, with renewed health and energy, I may be once more able to do some good service to our Society whose interests I have so much at heart.

On the conclusion of the Address, the Hon. Secretary was instructed by a unanimous resolution of the Meeting, to convey to Sir Henry Layard their thanks for his having so kindly sent it in spite of long continued illness, and to express to him their hearty concurrence in its closing words, and their earnest hope that he might speedily be restored to health and strength.

The ballot was then taken for Officers and Council for the ensuing year, with the following result:—

Officers and Council for the year May 1894 to May 1895. President, The Right Hon. Sir Henry Layard, G.C.B.

Vice-Presidents,-Sir Henry William Peek, Bart.; MajorGeneral Sir Edmund F. Du Cane, K.C.B.; Arthur Giraud Browning, F.S.A.; William John Charles Moens, F.S.A.; Robert Hovenden, F.S.A.

Treasurer, Reginald St. Aubyn Roumieu.

Honorary Secretary,—Reginald Stanley Faber, M.A.

Members of Council,-Alexandre Louis Foucar, Charles A. Govett, Thomas Noel Hugo, Richard Herbert Lapage, Louis Hooper Le Bailly, P. De Lande Long, T. Miller Maguire, LL.D., Victor Maslin, Henry Merceron, William Minet, F.S.A., William Page, F.S.A., W. Harry Rylands, F.S.A.

A Programme of arrangements for the Summer Conference in Ireland was submitted and approved, and it was decided to hold the Conference on Wednesday and Thursday, the 11th and 12th of July, but owing to the death of Sir Henry Layard on July 5th, all these arrangements were ultimately cancelled.