| 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: Lionel Smith Beale; William Bowman; Commander Frederick John Owen Evans; Edward Frankland; John Hall Gladstone; William Robert Grove; Thomas Henry Huxley; William Lassell; William Allen Miller; William Hallows Miller; Andrew Crombie Ramsay; William Sharpey; Colonel William James Smythe; William Spottiswoode; George Gabriel Stokes; Thomas Thomson; William Tite; Sir William Page Wood; the President, Lieutenant-General Edward Sabine, in the Chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. Colonel Smythe made and subscribed to the declaration in lieu of the oath as a new Member of Council. Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys and Professor Warington Smith were appointed to the Government Grant Committee. Report of the Committee on the letter of Lord Cranborne, full text entered into the minutes: giving a volume-by-volume analysis of the merits of works by Messrs. de Schlaginweit; the report was ordered to tbe transmitted to Lord Cranborne. Letter from T.H. Farrer, Board of Trade, Whitehall, 22 December 1866, to the Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: acknowledging the Society's letter and noting the appointment of a Standing Committee on Meteorology; the Board is ready to consider arrangements proposed by the committee. Letter from the Colonial Office, forwarded from the Foreign Office, with papers from the French Government on the use of electric light in sea fishing and submarine work and a despatch from Ceylon; Lord Carnarvon's offer of copies of papers from the French Ministry of Marine accepted. Letter from the Board of Trade enclosing a copy of Mr. Holdsworth's letter on electric lighting. Letter from Frederic Rogers, Downing Street, 15 January 1867, to Edward Sabine, full text entered into the minutes: on the proposed meteorological observatory on Mauritius, forwarding a despatch from Governor Sir Henry Barkly, and a letter of authority given to Mr. Meldrum for providing instruments and an assistant; requesting the Royal Society's advice on a plan for the building and on appointing an assistant; referred to the President for reply. Letter from Few and Company, 2 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, 22 December 1866, to Walter White, full text entered into the minutes: submitting a deed of conveyance on land at Acton to be sold to the London and South-Western Railway Company for the Royal Society's seal; the Treasurer will have to sign a receipt in the presence of a witness. The Treasurer stated that he had asked Messrs Smith and Oakley to ensure that the piece of land did not exceed the amount specified and communicated their report. Letter from D. Smith, Son and Oakley, 10 Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, 17 January 1867, to the Treasurer of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: agreeing that the land at Acton sold by the Royal Society was correct, and that the tenant's rent should be reduced by ten shillings per year. The corporate seal of the Royal Society was affixed to the deed of conveyance. A request from Mr. Barrow on behalf of Colonel Wood for use of the Society's Meeting Room for the distribution of prizes to M.A. Volunteers acceded to. Letter from Messrs. Adams and Francis requesting copies of the Society's publications from 1866 to deposit at the approaching Paris Exhibition, granted. Proceedings granted to the Leeds Philosophical Society. List of bills for payment, for lithography. |