332 
nity of the Academy was compromised, its place amongst 
the scientific bodies of Europe was lowered, and its influence, 
as the chief scientific body in our own country, was greatly 
diminished. But our last President, to whom we owe so much 
for his wise administration of the affairs of the Academy, 
looked upon this practice as one which needed reformation, 
and accordingly, with the aid of the Officers of the Academy, 
he drew up a code of regulations respecting the admission of 
Honorary Members, to which the Academy at large, after due 
deliberation, gave its cordial approval. It was thus deter- 
mined that we should have a fixed number of Honorary Mem- 
bers, the number having been previous to that time unlimited ; 
and it was also thought reasonable to distribute these honours 
in a particular manner, by electing a certain number of Members 
in the several departments of Science, Polite Literature, and 
Antiquities. Sixty being the whole number of places reserved 
for Honorary Members, it was deemed only reasonable that 
half that number should be devoted to Science in its nume- 
rous phases, whilst one-fourth was reserved for scholars dis- 
tinguished in Polite Literature, and as many more for the culti- 
vators of Archeology. We are now bound to elect at least 
one-half of our Honorary Members, in each section, from per- 
sons who are not natives of the British Islands. Formerly a 
very considerable proportion of our Honorary Members were 
natives of our own country, and the claims of learned men on 
the Continent were not sufficiently attended to. This brief 
explanation will account for the fact that, in the present in- 
stance, the Council has not recommended the names of men 
who, nevertheless, hold a leading place among the savans of 
Europe. ‘Those who have watched the progress of science 
in these countries may, on looking over the list of our Hono- 
rary Members, observe with surprise the omission of the name 
of Faraday. It is, indeed, an omission of which we have 
reason to be ashamed; but the present Council is not to be 
censured, because the name of Faraday is not now recom- 
