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; REWARDS AND MEDALS. 307 
possessed by the Royal Society, and which it might 
naturally have been supposed would be put into the 
hands of every member, to excite that ‘ compe- 
tition” which was the express condition upon which 
some of these medals were founded. 
(214.) It appears, then, that the following means 
of rewarding merit are possessed by the president and 
council of the Royal Society. The first are the royal 
medals, two in number, of the value of fifty guineas 
each, founded by our late king, to be awarded an- 
nually as “ honorary premiums, under the direction 
of the president and council, in such a manner as 
shall, by the excitement of competition among men 
of science, seem best calculated to promote the 
object for which the Royal Society was instituted.” * 
The following rules, for the award of these medals, 
were subsequently decided upon, by the council, on 
the 26th of January, 1826 :— 
Resotvep, That it is the opinion of the council that the 
medals be awarded for the most important discoveries or 
series of investigations, completed and made known to the 
Royal Society in the year preceding the day of their award. 
2. That it is the opinion of the council that the presentation 
of the medals should not be limited to British subjects ; 
and they propose, if it should be his Majesty’s pleasure, 
that his effigy should form the obverse of the medal. 3. That 
two medals from the same die should be struck upon each 
foundation, one in gold, one in silver. 
(215.) We neither possess the wish nor the means 
of enquiring how far these honorary rewards have 
been distributed with justice and impartiality. If what 
* Mr. Secretary Peel’s Letter. 
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