Calendar: 1873-1874 Page 56

ANNUAL REPORT 55 II Passing now to the special events of the past year the Council have great pleasure in announcing that considerable progress has been made in respect of the Special Fund referred to in the last Report public meeting was held in Willis's Rooms in May under the presidency of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury at which the claims of the College were powerfully advocated by the Right Hon Gladstone the Bishops of Gloucester and Bristol and Peterborough Lord Lyttelton Mr Ε Denison and Mr Smith and the general result has been to advance the Fund from £5 000 to something above £8 000 In this sum are included several grants amounting to about £800 from some of the Companies of the City of London This result is already one of very great value to the College it has enabled the Council to pay off large amount of pressing debt and has therefore increased the annual resources by diminishing both the amount of interest due and the necessity of that Sinking Fund which has often pressed so severely and even necessitated taxation of the incomes of the Staff But the work is still far from complete and the Council have in consequence great pleasure in announcing that the Rev igram son of the late Treasurer of the College and member of family which has always been among its most liberal supporters has made munificent offer of sum of £1 000 to the Fund provided that before the end of this year the Fund shall have been made up to £13 000-a sum which would set the College entirely free from debt and would give it such an annual surplus as would remove all pecuniary anxieties and enable the Council to meet those necessities for extraordinary expenditure which must necessarily present themselves in the conduct of great educational institution especially in times of excessive competition and constant advance of scientific requirements In this very year the Council have been urged by the Applied Science Department to improve the arrangements of the Drawing School by the Medical Department to enlarge the Physiological Laboratory and by the School to improve the accommodation so as to meet the necessities of increasing numbers They therefore