270 
_lency encourages us to hope that you will be pleased to inquire 
into the character and objects of our Society. If the manner 
in which we have discharged the important duties intrusted 
to us should meet with your Excellency’s approval, we doubt 
not that you will take a lively interest in our proceedings, 
and extend to us that support which the efforts we have made 
for the advancement of science and learning in this country 
may seem to your Excellency to deserve. 
‘‘ By the constitution of the Academy, we are incorpo- 
rated for the threefold object of promoting Science, Polite 
Literature, and Antiquities, and the Council of the Academy 
consists of three Committees, each charged with the direction 
of the Academy’s labours in one of these departments of 
learning. 
«That we have not been unsuccessful in the cultivation 
of these studies is evidenced, we trust, by the Transactions we 
have published, which are already well and widely known. 
‘¢ Through the favour shown to us by your Excellency’s 
predecessor, the Earl of Clarendon, the Academy has become 
possessed of a house, provided for us by Government, to which 
we have only removed during the last week. 
“In these more enlarged and suitable premises we hope 
in a short time to arrange and display our;Museum and Li- 
brary, so as to make them more accessible to Students, as well 
as more attractive and instructive to the Public. 
‘«¢ Amidst the unhappy divisions which have unfortunately 
distracted this country for so many years, the Royal Irish 
Academy has always been neutral ground ; and it is with pride 
and pleasure we reflect, that even if we had directly done no- 
thing for the advancement of learning in Ireland, the labours 
of the Academy would not have been vain were it only for 
the evidence they afford, that in the cultivation of intellectual 
pursuits it is possible to unite in a harmony, which has never 
‘been disturbed, those who differ, notwithstanding, upon the 
most momentous subjects. 
