75 



trusted to the Committee of Antiquities to enable them to profit by 

 such chances. The Academy have accordingly, by a recent vote, 

 placed at the disposal of the Committee the sum of £200, which 

 will probably serve the purpose for a considerable period. In the 

 meantime, from the liberality of members and other gentlemen, 

 the Museum is receiving constant accessions, which are regularly 

 recorded in the Proceedings, and among which the large donation 

 lately made by Captain Portlock is deserving of especial mention. 



In touching on this subject, the Council are reminded of the 

 severe loss which the Academy have sustained by the decease of 

 their late respected Vice-President, the Very Rev. Henry Richard 

 Dawson, Dean of St. Patrick's, a gentleman universally lamented 

 by those who had the pleasure of knowing him in private life, but 

 whom the lovers of Irish antiquities have peculiar reasons to re- 

 gret ; for he was a zealous preserver and collector of the old me- 

 morials of his country, and the treasures of this kind which he had 

 accumulated in a period of many years, would have been bequeathed 

 to the Museum now begun withinth ese walls, had not his well- 

 known intentions been frustrated by the suddenness of the stroke 

 which removed him from amongst us. The Dean having died in- 

 testate, his collections will of course be sold ; but as they will 

 fetch a price far above what the Academy could afford, a sub- 

 scription, which it is to be hoped may be successful, has been set 

 on foot, under the management of the Committee of Antiquities, 

 for the purpose of depositing these valuable remains in the place 

 for which they were intended by their generous collector. 



The past year has also deprived us of some other distinguished 

 Members, among whom was Thomas Drummond, Esq., Captain in 

 the Corps of Royal Engineers, and Under-Secretary of State for 

 Ireland. In his professional character, Mr. Drummond was re- 

 markable for combined energy and talent, and for the singular 

 power which he possessed of making the truths of science available 

 for important purposes in practice. Though this was not the 

 country of his birth, yet it was here that he spent the most active 

 period of his life. Engaged in the Ordnance Survey, at its com- 

 mencement in this kingdom, he enriched the practice of geodetical 

 operations with some oi its most useful instruments, which have 



