Laws of the Hakluyt Society.
I. The object of this Society shall be to print, for distribution among its members, rare and valuable Voyages, Travels, Naval Expeditions, and other geographical records, from an early period to the beginning of the eighteenth century.
II. The Annual Subscription shall be One Guinea, payable in advance on the 1st January; but Subscribers shall be at liberty to compound at any time for future years by the payment of ten guineas, and they shall incur no further liability.
III. Each member of the Society, having paid his subscription, shall be entitled to a copy of every work produced by the Society, and to vote at the general meetings within the period subscribed for; and if he do not signify, before the close of a year, his wish to resign, he shall be considered as a member for the succeeding year.
IV. The management of the Society’s affairs shall be vested in a Council consisting of twenty-one members, namely, a President, two Vice-Presidents, a Secretary, and seventeen ordinary members, to be elected annually; but vacancies occurring between the general meetings shall be filled up by the Council.
V. A General Meeting of the Subscribers shall be held annually, on the first Thursday in March, when two gentlemen shall be appointed to audit the Society’s accounts. The Secretary’s Report on the condition and proceedings of the Society shall be then read, and, along with the Auditor’s Report, be submitted for approval; and finally, the Meeting shall proceed to elect the Council for the ensuing year.
VI. At each Annual Election six of the old Council shall retire; and a list of the proposed new Council shall be printed for the subscribers previous to the general meeting.
VII. The Council shall meet ordinarily on the 3rd Tuesday in every month, excepting August, September and October, for the despatch of business, three forming a quorum, and the Chairman having a casting vote.
VIII. Gentlemen preparing and editing works for the Society shall receive twenty-five copies of such works respectively.
IX. The number of copies printed of the Society’s productions shall not exceed the estimated number of Subscribers; so that after the second year, when the Society may be supposed to have reached its full growth, there shall be no extra copies.
X. The Society shall appoint Local Secretaries throughout the kingdom, empowered to enrol members, transmit subscriptions, and otherwise forward the Society’s interests; and it shall make such arrangements with its correspondents in the chief provincial towns as will insure to Subscribers residing in the country the regular delivery of their volumes at moderate charges.