| 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: George Burrows; Heinrich Debus; Peter Martin Duncan; Sir Philip de Malpas Grey-Egerton; George Carey Foster; Francis Galton; John Peter Gassiot; William Huggins; George Murray Humphry; John Gwyn Jeffreys; Sir John Lubbock; William Hallowes Miller; William Sharpey; Charles William Siemens; William Spottiswoode; George Gabriel Stokes; John Tyndall; Alexander William Williamson; the President, General Sir Edward Sabine, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. List of candidates for the award of Royal Society Medals, proposers and seconders to nominate at a subsequent meeting. The Treasurer tabled the agreement signed by Mr. Kelk, the new tenant on the Mablethorpe Estate. Applications to copy papers and illustrations from the Society's archives and journals. Consideration of the Report of the Committee on Kew Observatory, with a statement by Mr. Gassiot, promising securities generating £500 annually if Kew is continued as an observatory: with a memorandum by the President noting that the the proposal is not the same as that considered by the Committee and that a committee might be appointed for Kew in a similar way to the Meteorological Committee, with the Society handling securities ansd payments only. Officers were instructed to confer with Mr. Gassiot, and with the solicitors, draw up a scheme in reference to Kew Observatory. The letter of George Biddell Airy of 20 March 1871 regarding the Presidency was considered: soiree expenses were no longer to be paid by the President, and Council do not anticipate that other expenses attending the Office would require provision from the Royal Society. |