| 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: Thomas Bell; Samuel Hunter Christie; Warren De La Rue; William Robert Grove; Thomas Henry Huxley; Henry Bence Jones; Sir Frederick Pollock; the Reverend Baden Powell; Colonel Edward Sabine; William Sharpey; Admiral William Henry Smyth; William Tite; Charles Wheatstone; the President, William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. Report of the Officers on the application of the Chemical Society was approved, the arrangement to commence from February of next year. Letter from James Booth, Office of Committee of Privy Council for Trade, Marine Department, 3 June 1854, to the Secretary, the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: it has been determined to submit an estimate for an office for the discussion of the observations of meteorology, to be made at sea, in accordance with the recommendations of the Brussels Conference last year; the Royal Society is asked to provide great desiderata in meteorology; Booth encloses a log which contains all that is proposed to execute, but it may be that observations on land on an extended scale might be made in the future and the Society should consider the contingency in any reply. Resolved, that a draft letter, full text entered into the minutes, soliciting the opinions of the distinguished meteorologists listed, should be sent: that a committee should be appointed to create a draft reply to the Board of Trade, and that the Board should be informed of these steps. Letter from Benjamin Oliveira, 8 Upper Hyde Park Street, London, 22 May 1854, to the President and Council of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: placing 50 guineas at the disposal of the Council. Mr. Tite presented a report from the committee appointed to consider a letter from the executors of the late Mr. Bate, with associated correspondence, full text entered into the minutes: letter from Thomas Dobson, Inland Revenue Office, 14 June 1854, to Charles Richard Weld; copy letter from Spring Rice, Seymour and J. Parker, Treasury Chambers, Whitehall, 19 November 1936; Receipt from Francis Baily, Treasurer, the Royal Society, London, 25 November 1836; the committee determine that the application from the executors of Mr. Bate should not be entertained, and a letter would be sent to that effect. The name of Arthur Cayley to be added to the list of candidates for a Royal Medal. Letter from the Librarian of the Middle Temple, proposing an exchange of Library catalogues. Request from Colonel Le Couteur for copies of Philosophical Transactions for the past five years, acceded to. |