| 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; Benjamin Collins Brodie; Charles Brooke; Samuel Hunter Christie; Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton; John Peter Gassiot; William Hallowes Miller; Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Portlock; Colonel Edward Sabine; Edward Solly; 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. Letter from W.A.S. Hamilton, Admiralty, 1 June 1852, to Samual Hunter Christie, Secretary, the Royal Society, Somerset House, full text entered into the minutes: directions had been given for the vessel Gossamer to be fitted out at Sheerness for tidal investigations. Colonel Sabine reported on behalf of the Committee of Recommendations for the application of the Government Grant: seven grants recommended to Council for allocation, with funds reserved until autumn, and sevrral committeese recommended to supervise the application of the individual grants, the report adopted. Letter from Samuel Hunter Christie, 16 June 1852, to the Secretary of the Treasury, full text entered into the minutes: enclosing a memorandum on the application of the Government Grant to date, with a further report to be made on the accomplishments of the grants made in 1850, 1851 and 1852 in due course. Mr. Bell presented a report of the Committee on the Winteringham bequest, full text entered into the minutes: on the practicality of carrying out the object of the bequest, with a plan and suggestions, the report adopted; letters tio be addressed to ten Fellows, asking their advice on the expediency of attempting to carry out the objects of the Winteringham bequest in accordance with the report. Council having taken in the crowded state of the Royal Society Library and the want of accommodation in general in the Society's apartments, resolved that the President make representations to Government to increase accommodation, and that the four Societies, Linnean, Geological, Astronomical and Chemical meet Council in conference to discuss the their juxtaposition. Resolved by ballot that Adolphe Brongniart, Johann Lamont, Benjamin Peirce and Victor Regnault should be recommended for election as Foreign Members. Letter from Joseph Henry, Secretary of the Smithsonian Instuitution, Washington, 7 May 1852, to Colonel Edward Sabine, Treasurer, Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: thanking the Royal Society for the arrangement of free duty for scientific publications intended for societies and individuals in Great Britain; he sends a list of the libraries and societies with which the Smithsonian is in correspondence, where a package is sent annually or semi-annually; the Smithsonian will send an agent to the Society's rooms for the authorisation to procure passage of articles through the Custom House, with Henry Smith appointed the agent in London. |