XLVIIT. ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 
to £5,000 per annum) was reduced to £4,000. But, by a supplementary estimate, presented in the 
same session, a further sum of £1,500 was placed to the credit of the Royal Society to assist in “ estab- 
lishing a station in Canada in connection with the international scheme for simultaneous meteorolo- 
gical and magnetic observations round the region of the Pole.” 
In the Imperial estimates for the current fiscal year, ending on 31st March next, the original 
grant of £4,000 to the Royal Society, on behalf of scientific investigations, is continued; a further 
grant of £500 is recommended “in aid of the expenses” of two observers, who have been invited to 
accompany an American expedition to note the total eclipse of the sun on the 6th of the present 
month, and an additional sum of £1,750 (of which £750 was a revote of an unexpended part of last 
year’s grant) in aid of the Polar observations aforesaid. 
It is expressly stated, in these estimates, that “ the choice of stations, the appointment of observ- 
ers, and the methods of procedure are left to the Council of the Royal Society; subject to the condi- 
tion that the total amount chargeable on the public funds for this service shall not exceed £2,500. 
Apropos of this, it may be stated that last year the Parliament of Canada voted a sum of $4,000 for 
the transport of the British circumpolar party from Halifax to the Hudson’s Bay station, on Great 
Slave Lake, and return. 
These important public undertakings do not exhaust the measure of efficient service rendered to 
the cause of science in Great Britain by the Royal Society. The most thorough and systematic assist- 
ance afforded to the State by this illustrious association remains to be told. 
In the year 1855 a meteorologic office was established in connection with the Board ot Trade, for 
the purpose of collecting and disseminating facts and observations serviceable to navigators and of 
general public utility in the protection of commerce and the preservation of human life. This depart- 
ment was placed in charge of Admiral Fitzroy, who had earned a widespread reputation for his labours 
in this direction. After his decease, in 1865, the Government reorganized the meteorologic office and, 
feeling themselves incompetent to deal with a purely scientific matter, resolved to detach it from the 
Board of Trade and transfer it to the management of a scientific committee of the Royal Society, by 
whom the department is now entirely controlled. This committee is termed the Meteorological 
Council. It consists of five members (in addition to the Hydrographer to the Admiralty who is a 
member ex-officio) who are appointed by the Crown upon the recommendation of the President and 
Council of the Royal Society. In the selection of these individuals the Society acts upon its exclusive 
responsibility. They choose persons who from their acknowledged qualifications and experience are 
best fitted to direct the work of the office with efficiency, regularity and promptitude, and to initiate 
whatever improvements will conduce to the practical development of meteorology. 
At first, the services of these gentlemen were performed gratuitously; but, as their labours became 
increasingly onerous and burdensome, it was agreed to assign to the chairman a fixed salary of £300 
per annum, and to distribute £700 amongst the other four members, partly as an annual retainer and 
partly as fees for attendance at the regular meetings of Council. 
This expenditure is defrayed out of the annual grant, now amounting to £15,300, which is 
voted by Parliament to the Meteorological Council, for the purpose of conducting meteorological 
observations, and disseminating information, not merely in the United Kingdom but elsewhere 
throughout the world, upon weather forecasts and atmospheric phenomena. The Council makes a 
report every year to the Royal Society, a copy of which is laid before Parliament by royal command. 
It is a document replete with interest to all who desire to understand the progress and present state 
of practical meteorology. 
The foregoing arrangements were finally matured in 1877, when they were adopted for a limited 
period of five years, which expired in 1882. But we learn from the last report of the Meteorological 
Council, lately presented to Parliament, that they have been continued indefinitely, and “until either 
Her Majesty’s Government or the Royal Society, expresses a wish to terminate the existing arrange- 
ment, after having given not less than twelve months notice of the intention, or such shorter notice 
as may satisfy the other party.” - 
