ADDRESS

OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS

THE PRINCE LEOPOLD, K.G., K.T.,

PRESIDENT,

TO THE SOCIETY.

Wednesday, April 28th, 1880.

MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,

In obedience to the usual custom of this Society, I have now the pleasure of addressing to you a few words on this our Anniversary Meeting.

And, in doing so, I have great satisfaction in congratulating the Society on its continued prosperity, as evinced by the number of new names, which have been added to it during the last year, to fill the place of such losses we may have sustained by death; while, at the

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same time, I have not to record the resignation of a single Member.

Our loss, by death, of our ordinary Members has been two, and of our Honorary Members one; we have also lost one Honorary Foreign Member. On the other hand, we have elected eleven new Members.

The Society has, therefore, nine more subscribing Members than it had at our last Meeting.

On the biography of two of these gentlemen it is now my duty to say a few words.

Sir William Erle, formerly Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, died recently, after a few days' illness, at his residence, Bramshott, near Liphook, Hampshire; and considering how many years have elapsed since his retirement from the Chief Justiceship of the Court of Common Pleas, which he filled with so much credit and honour, it is interesting that we have not, ere this, had to record his death. Having long outlived his successor, Sir William Bovill, Sir W. Erle has passed away, at the age of 87, his longevity being fairly comparable with those of Lord Brougham, Lord Lyndhurst, and Lord St. Leonards. Sir