Vv 
has been made and continued to the Institution,’ renders it 
necessary that Government should be in possession of cor- 
rect information. 
“The returns made to the Academy by the Council of 
30th November, 1844, also contain statements of the assets, 
debts, and engagements of the Academy. 
**T have the honour to be your Lordship’s 
* Obedient Servant, 
‘“W. Betuam, M.R.I. A. 
** To Right Honourable the 
Lord Eliot, §c. &c.” 
II. 
** Royal Irish Academy, 
** 23rd Jan., 1845. 
** My Lorp,—In compliance with the desire of the Lord 
Lieutenant, as communicated to the Council of the Royal Irish 
Academy, in your Lordship’s letter of the 18th of January, 
I am directed by the Council to offer the following observa- 
tions for the information of His Excellency, with regard to 
the representations made by Sir William Betham to Her 
Majesty’s Government, concerning the mode in which the 
business of the Academy has been conducted. 
** The Council, in the first place, beg to say, that nothing 
would give them greater pleasure than an inquiry, on the 
part of the Government, into the management of the affairs 
of the Academy ; that body, as is very well known, having 
for some years back displayed a degree of energy and effi- 
ciency, which has gained for it the entire confidence of the 
public. But an inquiry of such a kind, on the part of Sir W. 
Bethan, is not a thing to be encouraged by the Council; and, 
that it is not a thing which the Academy are disposed to coun- 
tenance, Sir W. Betham was given to understand, by a vote 
of the Academy, on the 13th of the present month, when he 
