| 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: Robert Brown; Samuel Hunter Christie; John Frederic Daniell; George Dollond; Thomas Graham; John Thomas Graves; William Hallows Miller; Richard Owen; Peter Mark Roget; the President, Spencer Joshua Alwyn Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last two meetings were read and confirmed. Letter from James C. Melvill, East India House, 16 May 1844, to the Marquess of Northampton, full text entered into the minutes: noting that letters by Lieutenant Elliott and Sir John Herschel had been laid before the Directors and he forwards a copy of the Court's reply to Elliott, declining to authorise magnetic observations at other locations, but giving an extension to existing observations until the end of 1845. Letter from Mr. Davies asking to withdraw from the Committee of Mathematics. Mr. Christie reported that the Committee of Physics recommended an application for a magnetic survey of a portion of the Southern Ocean. Letter from Edward Sabine, Woolwich, 11 June 1844, to Sir John Frederick William Herschel, Collingwood, full text entered into the minutes: on magnetic observations made by the Antarctic Expedition being published in Philosophical Transactions; these might be made more complete by an observational voyage from the Cape of Good Hope into the Southern Ocean and he recommends Lieutenant Clerk of the Royal Artillery as an observer, with assistance from the Admiralty. Letter from Sir John Frederick William Herschel, Collingwood, Hawkhurst, Kent, 12 June 1844, to the Chairman of the Committee of Physics, full text entered into the minutes: forwarding Sabine's letter with comments on the merits of observations in the Southern Ocean, requesting that the proposal be brought to the attention of the Admiralty. Resolved that the President communicate with the First Lord of the Admiralty, forwarding the letters of Sabine and Herschel. Resolved that the expediency of the Royal Society applying for the grant of a new Charter to be discussed at the next meeting of Council. |