| 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: Frederick Augustus Abel; Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie; William Benjamin Carpenter; Frederick Currey; Warren De La Rue; Sir William Fergusson; William Henry Flower; Captain Douglas Galton; John Peter Gassiot; Sir John Hawkshaw; John Marshall; William Hallows Miller; Joseph Prestwich; Captain George Henry Richards; William Sharpey; Archibald Smith; George Gabriel Stokes; Colonel Alexander Strange; the President, Lieutenant-General Edward Sabine, followed by William Allen Miller, in the Chair.
Among matters discussed or noted: minutes of the last meeting read and approved. The election of Foreign Members was confirmed by ballot. Selection of candidates for Fellowship of the Royal Society was again considered, with a list of candidates selected by ballot to be recommended to the Society for election at the annual meeting for that purpose. Letter from eight Fellows of the Royal Society, headed by William Spottiswoode and Joseph Dalton Hooker, Athenaeum Club, 8 April 1869, to the Secretary of the Royal Society, full text entered into the minutes: asking what steps had been taken to correct the impression that the Government Grant for meteorological purposes is a favour conferred upon the Royal Society by Government, rather than the Society conferring a favour upon Government by administering the money for public purposes; with a draft reply by the Secretary. The Treasurer informed Council that under the will of John Davy, the service of silver plate presented to Sir Humphry Davy for the invention of the safety lamp had been bequeathed to the Society, to be melted down and sold in order to fund a medal and that Dr. Davy had left his portrait under certain conditions; these had been received and the documents relating to them would be tabled at the next meeting. Resolved that a committee be appointed to have the plate melted down and to report on the nature of the prize to be established, according to Sir Humphry Davy's intentions. |