| 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; Benjamin Collins Brodie; Charles Brooke; Samuel Hunter Christie; George Peacock, Dean of Ely; John Peter Gassiot; Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Portlock; Captain William Henry Smyth; Edward Solly; William Spence; 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. Letter from Augustus Stafford, Admiralty, 26 April 1852, to the Earl of Rosse, Castle, Parsonstown, full text entered into the minutes: on the expense of printing a survey of the tides by Captain Beechey, their Lordships do not see why the Admiralty should be put to the expense; the Secretary to be requested to inform Stafford that the paper was printed in Philosoiphical Transactions on the express understanding with the Hydrographer that the cost would be defrayed by the Admiralty. Letter from J.H. Hay, Admiralty, 29 April 1852, to the Earl of Rosse, 13 Connaught Place, full text entered into the minutes: on receipt of Rosse's letter with its enclosed minute of Council, the Admiralty will furnish the means to publish Captain Beechey' tidal observations, but that the Treasury must in future be solicited for a grant, since the Department has no further funds for scientific purposes; resolved that President and Council have recommended the continuation of the survey but have no means of estimating the probable cost, and therefore cannot make application to the Treasury. Mr. Few presented the engrossment of answer in the suit relating to W. Ford Stevenson and the Royal Society's common seal was affixed to it: Mr. Few was instruected to obtain Counsel's opinion on the expediency of filing a bill in Chancery to secure the Stevenson bequest. Application was made by Sir William Reid, Governor of Malta, to grant copies of Royal Society publications to the ancient Library of Malta, now the public library: the Library to be placed on the list of societies entitled to received Philosophical Transactions, and copies of this and Proceedings from 1840 were granted. |