of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, how some few of those refugees' descendants met in a room in London to discuss the desirability of founding a Society in memory of their brave and unfortunate ancestors.

It

Such a thought may perchance have passed through the mind of some amongst them before but, if so, it was but a fleeting one, dismissed and forgotten as quickly as it came. was reserved for one man alone to seize on the idea, and by anxious thought and self-denying toil to give it form and substance and, with the aid of others whom he had inspired with his own enthusiasm, to found the Huguenot Society of London.

It cannot be unknown to any of us, here in England at least, that for our founder we have to look to Mr. Arthur Giraud Browning, who was not only our guide in earliest days, but to whose constant and unflagging zeal and helpfulness, to say nothing of his consummate knowledge of Huguenot history, we have been unceasingly indebted during the whole of the past ten years. His colleagues in the Council are well

aware that the success which has attended his efforts and enabled us to assemble here this evening, is felt by him to be ample reward for all that he has done; but we think you will agree that it would be ungrateful in the extreme if we did not give utterence on this occasion to our keen appreciation of our indebtedness to him. You will share too in our deep regret that, owing to recent sad bereavement, Mr. Browning is not with us to-night to receive the welcome we should have accorded him. But I will ask you to give your unanimous assent to the resolution which I have the privilege and pleasure of proposing. It is this:

That the President, Vice-Presidents, Council, and Fellows of the Huguenot Society of London, desire to express to Mr. Arthur Giraud Browning, Founder of the Society, their sense of the gratitude they owe to him, first of all for his exertions in establishing the Society ten years ago and also for the never-failing efforts he has made during those years to ensure its prosperity and usefulness, to make it the means of promoting a knowledge of a most important and interesting portion of modern history, and to bring together in pleasant social intercourse the decendants of those Huguenot refugees, whose best characteristics are so conspicuously reproduced in him. And this Meeting further desires to express to Mr. Browning its respectful and affectionate sympathy

with him and all members of his family, in the deep sorrow which has recently befallen them, and an earnest hope that time may not only soften its bitterness, but even bring them many years of renewed happiness.'

And now to pass in review a few of the salient points in the Society's history since that April day ten years ago from which it dates its birth.

We have, first and foremost, to chronicle the loss of our first President, Sir Henry Layard, and not his loss alone, but also that of several of the Members of our first Council. That was formed of the following twelve gentlemen, Mr. La Trobe Bateman, Mr. W. M. Beaufort, Mr. A. G. Browning, Major C. J. Burgess, Mr. S. W. Kershaw, General F. P. Layard, Mr. F. P. Labilliere, Mr. W. J. C. Moens, Professor Henry Morley, the Dean of Peterborough (now Bishop of Worcester), Dr. R. Lane Poole, and Mr. E. E. Stride. Five of these have passed away from us, viz:-Mr. Bateman, Major Burgess, General Layard, Mr. Labilliere, and Professor Morley.

On referring to the first List of our Fellows, you will find that there are 126 names in it. Of these, nearly one half, viz: sixty-one, have been lost to the Society; many alas by death, some by withdrawal; whilst of the thirteen Honorary Fellows whom we had ten years ago, six have died. The loss of these friends and supporters has been from time to time noticed in our Proceedings and we are unwilling to dwell upon so sad a subject, or to bid you linger over melancholy reminiscences at a time which, we venture to think, should be one of rejoicing rather than of mourning; yet we should ill deserve the name of Huguenot, did we not find some place in our memory for our brethren who are not with us to share in this evening's happy gathering. I may perhaps be allowed to specially mention the very recent loss of one of our oldest Fellows, both in date of election and actual age. I refer to the Rev. Dr. Heurtley, who passed away last week at the great age of ninety.

Our first List, as just mentioned, contained the names of 126 Fellows only; our number to-night is 360, and were it not for the blanks caused by the changes and chances of ten long years that number would be far greater, for there have passed through our books so less than 540.

These numbers may be considered highly satisfactory and we may congratulate ourselves on the Society's having commended itself to so many Huguenots both in this country

and abroad. And not to Huguenots alone. Though primarily a Society for bringing together those who can lay claim to that title, yet it is not exclusively so; and as you are aware, we are glad to see amongst us several others who, though not themselves Huguenots, yet take a lively interest in our present work and past history. And more than this even; we may feel justified in priding ourselves in the thought that our work is not only of interest to our own members, but of value to many others in the world at large, if we may take as evidence the fact of so many important public libraries having become regular subscribers for our publications. That our volumes are considered of importance to the historian and genealogist both here and in foreign countries, the names of these great libraries seem sufficient proof. Such, to mention a few only, are the British Museum and the Bodleian amongst ourselves, the Bibliothèque Nationale in France, the University of Ghent in Belgium, the Boston Public Library and Harvard University in the United States, and the Victoria Public Library in Australia.

The volumes thus in demand are in your hands and you are familiar with their contents, which are already sufficiently varied to meet the requirements of all or most of us. Should we go on as prosperously during the next ten years as we have during the past, we may confidently expect that our coming publications will be of importance equal to, if not greater than, those already issued.

The four first volumes of Proceedings contain nearly all the Papers that have been read at our Meetings, amounting to some sixty in number and treating of many different subjects. This is not the time for entering into anything like a detailed account of them, but we would in passing call to your memory as of special importance, Sir Henry Layard's articles on the Massacre of St. Bartholomew and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Baron de Schickler's account of the French Churches in London, Mr. Atkinson's paper on the Cardinal de Châtillon, and those by Mr. Minet and Mr. Overend on the French Church and Settlement at Dover. In addition to these esays we have been able to include in the Proceedings many valuable notes on a great variety of subjects, embodying a great deal of information never before put into print.

Side by side with the Proceedings we have on our shelves the eight handsome volumes of our quarto series of publications which may indeed be rather reckoned as ten, inasmuch as two of them have consisted of two parts each, thus giving us one

quarto volume or part for each year. If the Proceedings afford matter more generally attractive and readable, yet it is on these bulkier volumes, the foundation stones of Huguenot history and genealogy, that the Society's reputation will probably ultimately rest. It is our aim to include in them all the existing Registers of the French Churches of the United Kingdom and such other inedited manuscripts as we may be able to avail ourselves of. The Council (and I heartily agree with them) feel that the present is a most fitting opportunity for echoing the oft-repeated words of our late President and reminding you of the enormous debt of gratitude we owe to the several Editors of these volumes for the time and trouble, the care and special knowledge, which they have so ungrudgingly expended for us upon them. You recollect, perhaps, Dr. Johnson's definition of a 'Lexicographer' as a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.' It is to be feared that the editors of Registers fare little better in public estimation than Dr. Johnson evidently thought he himself would as the compiler of the since celebrated dictionary. We are all of us too apt to look upon the volumes that come to us year after year as just a bare equivalent for our annual guinea, and to regard their editors as 'harmless drudges,' who have an amiable and meritorious weakness, but still a weakness, for providing us with dictionaries of names, on whose outside we look with admiring wonder, but whose pages we seldom scan. Let us however this evening at least do full justice to those who have been, and still are, labouring so diligently and unostentatiously for our benefit, and to the result of whose labours the Society is in great measure indebted for its present position. Two of these unselfish workers, Sir Henry Layard and Mr. Marett Godfray, are no longer with us, but to our other editors, Mr. Moens, Mr. Hovenden, Dr. La Touche, Mr. Chamier, Mr. Minet, Mr. Waller, and Mr. Page, I will ask you to join with me and the Council in the expression of our sincerest thanks and genuine appreciation of all they have done for us.

We are pleased to be able to place before you at the close of this session a very satisfactory settlement of the past year's financial position of the Society, showing a balance to our credit on the 31st of December last of £51 1s. 3d., besides a funded capital of just £500. We have received the gratifying sum of £35 by the sale of our publications to new members, and the Council believe there is nothing to regret in the accounts except the comparatively small item of £18 for

expenses connected with the proposed Dublin Conference. That Conference had, as you know, to be given up at the last moment, owing to the unforeseen death of Sir Henry Layard. All the needful preparations had already been made by our Honorary Secretary and our Vice-President Mr. Hovenden, assisted by many kind friends in Dublin, especially by Dr. La Touche, who was unwearied in his efforts to ensure the Society a pleasant time in Ireland. These preparations necessarily involved some expense, so our surplus at the end of the year was not quite so much as it would otherwise have been.

The Balance-sheet will, as usual, be printed in the forthcoming number of the Proceedings; it is attested by the Auditors, Mr. William Grellier and Mr. Rousselet, and we have to thank those gentlemen for having kindly gone through the accounts and carefully verified all items of receipt and expenditure. Such verification is a work of some little time and trouble, but we believe the Auditors will bear us out when we say that their task is rendered as light as possible by the admirably clear and accurate way in which the Society's accounts are kept by our Treasurer, Mr. Reginald Roumieu. Mr. Roumieu was appointed Treasurer at the inaugural Meeting in 1885, and ever since you have, year after year, shown your confidence in him by unanimously re-electing him to fill that responsible office. As the Society has increased, so have its accounts, and with them the Treasurer's duties increased also. But the increase of work has been, the Council feel confident, nothing but a source of rejoicing to Mr. Roumieu, for it has meant increasing prosperity of the Society, an object so dear to him that they believe he would be only too glad to find his toils of office tenfold greater than they are. My colleagues and I now ask you to cordially join with us in passing a vote of thanks to Mr. Roumieu for all he has done for the Society, both in his official capacity and in numberless other ways, during the past ten years, and in expressing our earnest hope that he may long continue to carry on the Society's work as effectively as he has hitherto

done.

In taking a retrospect of our past, we must not forget the very friendly and pleasant relations we have maintained with other Societies, especially with those which, in common with ourselves, are more immediately concerned with Huguenot matters. Of these we naturally look on the Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Français as the chief, and to its