While it is true that the membership list of the Institution in its early days was of the representative character above indicated, it should be pointed out that the actual proceedings of the Institution were not shared in by anything like the variety of talent which the list comprised, or which now distinguishes its annual meetings. For many years it was almost the exclusive conference of Admiralty authorities and members of those shipbuilding and engineering firms who undertook Government work, and the transactions for a long time were very largely confined to purely naval matters. The scientific value of the earlier volumes of the transactions would certainly have suffered considerably if the papers by Mr Froude and Prof. Rankine had not formed contributions, and the prosperity and development of the Institution would have been equally lessened had there not been general infusion of “new blood” from the mercantile marine in all parts of the country. This has been going on during the past twelve years or more, and the scope and utility of the Institution’s proceedings have increased with the change. Of the later development of the Institution, the authority already quoted says:— “Owing to the rapid advances constantly being made in both the science and the practice of the profession, the ‘Transactions’ have come to be the chief text-books available. Members and Associates have joined from all the great maritime nations. Members of the professional corps of naval architects and engineers of France, Austria, Italy, Germany, the United States, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland, are proud to be numbered with their English professional brethren, and not a few of these foreign members have contributed valuable Papers. The meetings of the Institution afford exceptional opportunities for the discussion of questions having general interest, as well as others having more special value to professional men. Different views of the same subject find capable exponents, and lead to valuable discussions. The latest systems of construction and most recent changes in _materiel_ are described by competent authorities. Valuable _data_ are put on record relating to the designs and performances of war-ships and merchant-ships. Inventions of various kinds are described and examined. Abstruse theoretical investigations are by no means rare; and, in many cases, the contribution of one such Paper by an original thinker has given a start to others and led to important extensions of knowledge. In fact, the Institution of Naval Architects has admirably fulfilled the intentions of its founders, acting as a centre where valuable information could be collected, and whence it could be distributed for the general benefit of the profession. Before it was founded naval science had no home in England; its treasures lay scattered far and wide in occasional Memoirs and