| Description | Printed minutes containing matters laid before Council, the Royal Society's governing body of Fellows, with records of decisions taken.
Commencing with a list of Council members present: George Biddell Airy; Sir John Barrow; Dr. Richard Bright; Samuel Hunter Christie; John Frederic Daniell; Bryan Donkin; William Henry Fitton; Sir John William Lubbock; Reverend Baden Powell; Peter Mark Roget; Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Sabine; Lieutenant-Colonel William Henry Sykes; Reverend Robert Willis; the President, Spencer Joshua Alwyn Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. Letter from Charles Wheatstone, requesting that a sealed packet be placed in the Society's iron chest; the packet to be placed there with the seals of the Royal Society and the President. Letter from James C. Melville, East India House, 29 April 1841, to the Marquess of Northampton, full text entered into the minutes: transmitting a letter from the Rajah of Travancore. Letter from Maharajah Ram Rajah Behauder [Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma], Trevandrum in Travancore, 30 December 1840, to the Marquess of Northampton, full text entered into the minutes: anticipating the Royal Society's request he had his astronomer, Mr. Caldecott, add the magnetic instruments to those required for his observatory; when Caldecott arrives from England, he will be instructed to conduct the necessary observations. Letter from C. N. Trevelyan, Treasury Chambers, 30 April 1841, to the Marquess of Northampton, full text entered into the minutes: forwarding a Treasury Board minute on the estmates of cost of the magnetic survey of British North America prepared by Edward Sabine, sanctioning annual expenditure over three years. Letter from Sir John Barrow, Admiralty, 24 April 1841, to Peter Mark Roget, full text entered into the minutes: on the specimens returned by Captain James Clark Ross from the Antarctic Expedition, the Admiralty wishes for their safekeeping with only the condition that the specimens should not be alienated of described in publication before the return of the expedition; with an extract from the Instructions to Captain James Clark Ross, 14 September 1839. Letter from Sir John Barrow, Admiralty, 29 April 1841, to Peter Mark Roget, full text entered into the minutes: sending additional catalogues and specimens from St. Helena, the Cape of Good Hope and Kerguelen's Land; Roget reported that the materials had been sent to the British Museum for safekeeping under the conditions stated by Barrow; resolved that a copy of Barrow's original letter be copied to the Director. Two letters by John Barrow, Admralty, 30 April 1841, to Peter Mark Roget, and to the Principal Officers of Ordnance, full text entered into the minutes: on the publication of magnetic results from Van Diemen's Land [Tasmania; Lutruwita or Truwana]; with a letter by C. N. Trevelyan, Treasury Chambers, 28 April 1841, to John Barrow. Letter from Granville Leveson-Gower, Foreign Office, 11 March 1841, to the Marquess of Northampton, full text entered into the minutes: forwarding a letter from H.M. Minister in Stockholm. Letter from Thomas Cartwright, Stockholm, 2 February 1841, to Viscount Palmerston, full text entered into the minutes: on the Norwegian King and Government's establishment of a magnetic observatory at Hammerfest; enclosing a note verbale on the absence of Professor Hansteen causing delay. Resolved that magnetometers for the Hammersfest Observatory should be ordered and placed with Edward Sabine. Letter from M. Guillemard, requesting that Gasparo Gorresio be allowed to inspect the sanskrit manuscripts of Sir William Jones, granted. Letter from George Biddell Airy, Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 11 May 1841, to Peter Mark Roget. full text entered into the minutes: he has requested Mr. Murray to send 25 copies of the Greenwich Observations to the Royal Society. Application from Captain Beaufort from Mr. Miles for a renewed loan of the plate of Mr. Barlow's magnetic curves chart, granted. |