PREFACE.

S we commemorate on this occasion the twenty-fifth anniversary of the foundation of the Association, it may not be uninteresting, nor without profit, to recall to mind the circumstances under which our Society was originated, and to cast a retrospective glance at its labours and their results. It is not, however, intended that the following record shall in any sense be an exhaustive one, or that it shall testify to the complete range of the influence, either as affecting legislation or as touching the general welfare of communities, that the Association has, directly or indirectly, exerted during the quarter of a century that it has been in existence. But

the subsequent Narrative will exhibit some of the methods which have been adopted for the achievement of certain results, as to the lasting advantages of most of which few doubts can be entertained. It has, almost entirely, been compiled from the records of the Association; but I desire at the outset to acknowledge valuable assistance received from Mr. Hastings, and other old members of the Association, whose personal experience and knowledge of work done in the past have materially contributed to the interest and value of the record which I now place before our members and the public.

J. L. CLIFFORD-SMITII.

I ADAM STREET, ADELPHI, W.C.

August 1882.