ix 
DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THE REPLY OF COUNCIL. 
I. 
[ Extract. ] 
“ To the President and Council of the Royal Irish Academy. 
«¢ GenTLEMEN,—I have the honour to address you in 
compliance with the request of the Secretaries of the Aca- 
demy, that I would supply the Council with a statement of 
the circumstances which have caused so much delay in the 
publication of some Essays read by me at the Academy, as 
well as to explain other matters charged against me, in a 
letter addressed to Lord Eliot, Chief Secretary for Ireland, 
in order that it may be appended to the answer of the 
Council to that letter. 
“In the first place, then, I beg to acknowledge, that 
_whatever blame may be attached to the delay in the publi- 
cation of these papers, it should fall alone on me; for the 
Academy has no power, either moral or legal, to force authors 
to print papers in its Transactions, if it be contrary to their 
wish or convenience to do so. The Academy, like all other 
institutions of the kind, has been chartered chiefly for the 
purpose of fostering science and literature, by giving facility 
to the publication of Essays considered valuable, but which, 
from their abstract or archeological nature, could not be 
given to the world without great probability, if not certainty, 
of pecuniary loss to their authors, by publishing them at 
their own risk ; and hence it becomes a high honour to an 
author to be permitted to publish in its Transactions, if it be 
his wish or convenience to do so, but not an obligation on 
him if otherwise, or that he should prefer publishing on his 
own account. Such at least has been my impression on this 
matter, and such also has been the opinion of Sir William 
Betham, as often expressed while in friendship with me, and 
urged with a view to persuade me to do as he said he was 
