THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY, 1848. 483 



important chronicle had been long and earnestly desired by Irish 

 scholars. The language in which it is written was fast becoming 

 obsolete, and another half century would probably have interposed 

 3, serious difficulty in its interpretation ; while the curious mass 

 of information which Mr. O'Donovan has brought together in 

 illustration of it, collected, as it has been, in a great part, from 

 oral traditions, would, in all likelihood, have been wholly lost. 

 This work will ever remain a monument of the learning and labour 

 of its author, and would suffice alone to place his name in a high 

 rank in the list of Archaeologists. The three large quarto volumes 

 which have already appeared [contain the Annals from A. D. 1172 

 to 1616 ; Mr. O'Donovan is now engaged in preparing for publi- 

 cation the earlier portion, which will be accompanied by a com- 

 plete index of the names of 'persons and places mentioned in the 

 Annals. 



Upon the conclusion of his Address, the President presented 

 the Medals to Sir William Hamilton, Mr. Haughton, Dr. Hincks, 

 and Mr. O'Donovan, addressing them separately, as follows : 



SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON, In awarding you this Medal, the 

 Council cannot have the gratification of feeling that they are con- 

 tributing to the reputation of a name which is already known 

 wherever Science is cultivated. But they trust that you will 

 value it as a mark of sympathy from the Society, whose scien- 

 tific character you have raised by your labours, and whose interests 

 you have done so much in other ways to promote. Suffer me, on 

 my own behalf, to add, that the duty which I now discharge, as 

 the organ of the Academy on the present occasion, is to myself, 

 personally, the most grateful of any which have devolved upon me 

 as your successor in this Chair. 



MR. HAUGHTON. Accept this Medal as a testimony of the 

 high value which the Council of the Royal Irish Academy set 

 upon your researches, connected with a most difficult branch of 

 Applied Mathematics ; and as an expression of their hope that the 

 labours in the application of the higher branches of analysis to 

 physical problems, for which you have proved yourself so eminently 

 qualified, and which have been already crowned with such success, 

 may long continue to add to your own honour, and to that of tho 

 Academy of which you are a member. 



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