538 
‘¢ This theorem may be extended as follows: If a curve be 
such that only three tangents can be drawn parallel to a given 
line, any tangent will intercept, on three such tangents, seg- 
ments whose product will bear a given ratio to the segment 
intercepted on another fixed parallel.” 
The Secretary read a communication from Mr. Bindon, 
and presented a tracing from the original credentials which 
Father Hugo de Burgo carried with him to Belgium in 1644. 
«¢ With the view of making my search as useful and com- 
plete as possible, I thought it advisable, after having examined 
the Burgundian Library, to visit the Archives du Royaume of 
the Belgian government. 
** In that collection the original document, a fac simile of 
which is now presented to the reader, will be found. It is 
the credential which Father Hugh de Burgo, a Franciscan 
friar, carried with him when visiting Belgium, as the represen- 
tative of the Irish Catholic Confederates assembled at Kilkenny 
in the year 1644. 
‘*< It is presumed that this document is of some historical 
interest, presenting as it does the signatures of several leading 
members of the ‘* Supreme Council,” including those of its 
President, Richard Butler Viscount Mountgarret, and the se- 
eretary, Sir Richard Belling. The other signatures are those of 
Thomas Preston, the brother of Lord Gormanstown, and com- 
mander of the confederate forces in Leinster ; ‘Thomas Walsh, 
Archbishop of Cashel ; Malachy Quelly or O’Kelly, Arch- 
bishop of Tuam, who was killed leading an attack upon Sligo; 
Sir Daniel O’ Bryen, one of the Protestants who had joined the 
Catholic Confederates; Robert Lynch, and Terence O’Shaug- 
nessy. The ninth name I have not been able to decipher. 
‘¢ This mission of Father de Burgo to the Low Countries 
has not been noticed, as far I can discover, by any historians 
treating of the wars of 1641-1652. Carte, in his Life of the 
Duke of Ormond, states that “ Father Hugh Burke” was sent 
