| 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: John Couch Adams; Major-General John Theophilus Boileau; Edward Cardwell, Viscount Cardwell; Warren De La Rue; Captain Frederick John Owen Evans; Edward Frankland; Albert Gunther; Thomas Henry Huxley; Joseph Norman Lockyer; Reverend Robert Main; Daniel Oliver; Lyon Playfair; William Pole; Bartholomew Price; William Spottiswoode; George Gabriel Stokes; Alexander William Williamson; the President, Joseph Dalton Hooker, in the chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. Death of George Poulett Scrope. Report of the Government Grant Committee in the form of minutes of the meeting of 10 February 1876, full text entered into the minutes: list of applications for discussion, with grants made; resolved to inform Council that funds have been insufficient to meet all of the applications the Committee would have wished to fund and recommended that a statement of accounts is received from each grant recipient by June of each year, with a specification of apparatus to be delivered to the Royal Society when research has ended. Resolved on the recommendation of the House Committee that undisputed items in the account of Messrs. Perry and Company be paid. Letter from T.J. Phillips Jodrell, 13 Stratton Street, 31 January 1876, to Joseph Dalton Hooker, full text entered into the minutes: wishing to place £6,000 at the disposal of the Royal Society for research in the physical sciences; the donation accepted with thanks. Letter from Few and Company, 19 Surrey Street, 7 January 1876, to Walter White, full text entered into the minutes: on the transfer of annuities and stock to the Treasurer, from the estate of Henry Dircks. Letter from Few and Company, 19 Surrey Street, 16 February 1876, to Walter White, full text entered into the minutes: a certificate of the Chief Clerk has been filed to transfer £6,378 19s. to the Royal Society in the matter or the Bishop of Lincoln v. Hayward Handley's Estate. Letter from Dudley Ryder, Viscount Sandon, South Kensington Museum, London, 11 February 1876, to the President of the Royal Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, full text entered into the minutes: a proposal to hold conferences and conversazioni in association with the exhibition of the Loan Collection of Scientific Instruments and asking if the Royal Society would be prepared to take part; President and Officers to form a committee to confer with the Lords of the Committee of Education on the subject. Letter from William Stirling Maxwell, Board of Trade, 16 February 1876, to the President of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: requesting the Society's assistance in providing information to assess the effectiveness of the £10,000 grant in aid of meteorological research, posing five questions on how far scientific knowledge has advanced and if the grant should be continued; a Royal Society committee formed to answer the letter. Minutes of the Soiree Committee were read and the committee was empowered to carry out its recommendations with £105 to meet expenses: a soiree to be held on 5 April and receptions on 8 March and 24 May. An extension of time for admission granted to Benjamin Disraeli. The Bakerian Lecture, by Dr. Andrews, to take place on 27 April. Leave granted for the loan of wood blocks and plates to Mr. J.R. Napier. Mr. Lockyer gave notice of his calling the attention of Council to the lack of space in the Meeting Room for the illustration of papers presented to the Society. Bill for payment for coke and coal. |