| 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; William Bowman; Charles Brooke; James Challis; Samuel Hunter Christie; Charles Giles Bridle Daubeny; Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton; George Peacock, Dean of Ely; John Peter Gassiot; William Hallows Miller; Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Portlock; Colonel Edward Sabine; Captain William Henry Smyth; Edward Solly; William Spence; Nathaniel Wallich; 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. Mr. Bell reported on behalf of the committee to compile a list of scientific persons and institutions to be recommended to Government to have presents of foreign books free of duty. List of candidates for Foreign Membership of the Royal Society, from which four would be selected. Letter from Henry Unwin Addington, Foreign Office, 4 March 1852, to the Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: transmitting a copy letter from Major-General Sir John Burgoyne, on receipt of responses by foreign governments to a proposal on co-operation in establishing a uniform system of meteorological observations and the manner in which this should be carried out; requesting the opinion of the Royal Society on the value of suggestions made by United States men of science; the letter and documents to be considered by a committee appointed for the purpose. Letter from Charles Few, Covent Garden, 21 April 1852, to Charles Richard Weld, Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: on a codicil to the will of W. Ford Stevenson appointing a Mr. Venour to assist the executrix of the estate in which the Society is a beneficiary; a bill in Chancery will be required to carry out the trusts, and Few asks for authority to act on the Society's behalf; the authority was given. Letter from Mr. Airy enclosing a list for distribution of Mr. Cooper's Catalogue of Eliptic Stars, printed with funds from the Government Grant; the list to be sanctioned by the Treasury and the volume to be priced at five shillings. |