| 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: Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie; John Evans; Daniel Hanbury; Thomas Henry Huxley; Nevil Story Maskelyne; James Clerk Maxwell; Charles Watkins Merrifield; Joseph Prestwich; Andrew Crombie Ramsay; Rear-Admiral George Henry Richards; George Rolleston; William Sharpey; Francis Sibson; William Spottiswoode; Major-General Richard Strachey; Alexander William Williamson; the President, Joseph Dalton Hooker, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. The President made and signed the Declaration in lieu of the oath: new Members of Council made and subscribed the Declaration in lieu of the oath. Deaths of Sir George Rose and Professor Agassiz. Appointment of Vice-Presidents. The Treasurer reported on a letter from the Office of Works requiring the Society to insure the new house for £35,000, a reconsideration had been requested: he had appealed against a surcharge for Income Tax and House Tax for the old house, the Royal Academy adjudged to pay the whole; North-Western Railway had reopened negotiations to purchase a plot of land at Acton, agreeing to pay £100; and a notice of dissent against plans by the Ealing, Acton and City Railway. Proceedings of the Acton Estate Committee, the committee authorised to let building leases on plots referred to in Mr, Clifton's report. Solicitors for plaintiffs in the Handley Bequest case had asked for permission to examine the printed copies of the Society's three Charters and Licence in Mortmain against the originals, and important errors and omissions had been found. Re-appointment of committees with lists of members and terms of reference: the Library Committee; House Committee; Soiree Committee; Acton Estate Committee; and the Government Grant Committee. Letter from Henry M. Vane, Secretary of the Charity Commission, 8 York Street, St. James's Square, 9 December 1873, to George Gabriel Stokes, full text entered into the minutes: noting that the Fairchild Lecturer would in future be appointed by the Bishop of London. £250 placed at the disposal of the Library Committee to meet expenses of the Catalogue of Scientific Papers. Leave granted to Mr. Lockyer to copy his and Mr. Roberts's paper on analysis of alloys by spectroscopy. Letters from new Foreign Members acknowledging their election, and from Professor Helmholtz on the honour of the Copley Medal award; the Foreign Secretary requested permission to make the latter public, acceded to, on the approval of Helmholtz. Letter from Captain Heaviside, noting that the bar of Kater's original pendulum exhibits a bend; Heaviside granted permission to straighten it. Letter from Professor Stokes proposing a new construction of convertable pendulum to be swung at Kew by Captain Heaviside: £25 granted from the Donation Fund to assist. Captain Heaviside applied for the gift of papers by Captain Kater published in the Philosophical Transactions: the reply to be that no separate copies were held by the Society. Letter from Secretary Cardwell, asking if Sir Henry James's instructions for meteorogical observations should be republished, referred to the Meteorological Committee. Letter from Henry Willett, soliciting a further donation to the Sub-Wealden Exploration Fund: £50 granted from the Donation Fund. Letter from J.H. Foley, sculptor, granted permission to study the portrait of Lord Rosse in the Society's apartments. Letter from the Secretary of the Chemical Society concerning the admission of their Fellows to the evening meetings of the Royal Society, referred to the President. |