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REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. XXIX 
of the Council of the Association, communicated for the information of 
the Council, certain resolutions which had been adopted by the President 
and Council of the Royal Society, bearing on the same question; and 
after a full consideration of these resolutions, and of the opinions expressed 
in the letters of the individual Members of the General Committee of the 
Association, the Council adopted the following Minute, viz“ That the 
Council concur generally in the course of proceeding which has been 
taken on this subject by the Royal Society, as now explained to them by 
the President of that Society.” This Minute was communicated by order 
to the Royal Society, and the Resolutions have been since transmitted by 
Lord Wrottesley to Lord Palmerston, as having been adopted by the Pre- 
sident and Council of the Royal Society and concurred in by the Council 
of the British Association. 
b. The recommendation, that “the application to Government for an 
Expedition to complete our knowledge of the Tides be renewed,” was 
referred by the Council to the Committee of 1851, by whom the previous 
application had been made. The Committee consisted of the Rev. Dr. 
Whewell, the Earl of Rosse, Sir John Herschel, and the Astronomer 
Royal. No report has yet been received by the Council of the Com- 
mittee’s consequent proceedings. 
c. The recommendation, that “the Application made to Government in 
September 1852, concerning the great Southern Telescope, be renewed,” 
was communicated by the Council to the President and Council of the 
Royal Society, by whom the steps were taken in 1852 to promote this 
important object, and a hope was expressed on the part of the Association 
that the President and Council of the Royal Society would renew their 
efforts to carry out an object of so much interest to astronomy. The 
Council have not been informed of any subsequent proceedings. 
d. The General Committee having directed that “a Memorial should 
be presented to the Admiralty praying for the publication in a simple, 
uniform, and complete shape, tabular and descriptive, of the results of the 
trials of steam-ships employed in the public service,” the Council referred 
to the President of the Section of Mechanical Science, with whom the 
request for this publication had originated, for the information required to 
enable the Council to proceed in drawing up the desired Memorial. The 
information was supplied, and a document, drawn up in more limited terms 
than the recommendation, and stating fully the data required and the 
purpose to which it was proposed to apply them, was transmitted to the 
Secretary of the Admiralty, who replied that the Lords Commissioners 
did not think it would be proper for them to give information in regard to 
vessels belonging to private companies. This reply was communicated to 
the President of the Mechanical Section and a Committee acting with him 
on the registration of ships’ tonnage, by whom the subject will be again 
brought under the consideration of the Association at this Meeting. 
e. The deputation appointed to wait on Her Majesty’s Secretary for 
Foreign Affairs to “ urge the desirableness of sending out an annual expe- 
dition to the Niger, as proposed by Dr. Baikie,” have informed the Council 
that they have had an interview with Lord Clarendon, and have presented a 
Memorial which was very favourably received, and that the expedition has 
since been appointed, and has proceeded to the Niger under Dr. Baikie’s 
direction. 
II. At the Glasgow Meeting of the British Association, a Committee was 
appointed by the General Committee to consider a proposition which had 
been submitted to them for making a catalogue of the Philosophical Papers 
