Page:Reflections on the decline of science in England - Babbage - 1830.pdf/128

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106
FUNDS OF THE SOCIETY.

"Resolved, That 500 copies of the President's Discourses, about to be printed by Mr. Murray, be purchased by the Society, at the usual trade price."

The answer given to that question was, "that the Council had agreed to purchase these volumes at that price, in order to induce Mr. Murray to print the President's Speeches."

I remarked at the time that such an answer was quite unsatisfactory, as the following statement will prove.

The volume consists of 160 pages, or twenty sheets, and the following prices are very liberal:

£ s. d.
To composing and printing twenty sheets, at 3l. per sheet. 60 0 0
Twenty reams of paper, at 3l. per ream 60 0 0
Corrections, alterations, &c. 30 0 0
Total cost of 500 copies 150 0 0

Now upon the subject of the expense of printing, the Council could not plead ignorance. The Society are engaged in printing, and in paying printers' bills, too frequently to admit of such an excuse; and several of the individual members must have known, from their own