243 



consideration any proposal for the benefit of Science that should 

 meet with the general approval of its most trustworthy representa- 

 tives ; and the matter was deferred till the ensuing Session of Par- 

 liament, with the view partly, it is believed, of permitting the 

 question to be meanwhile maturely considered by scientific men. 

 Under such circumstances, your Council conceived that the period 

 was arrived in which the most ancient and venerable of all the 

 Societies existing in this country for the cultivation of Science was 

 called upon to take some steps for the purpose of eliciting the 

 opinions of its most active Members on a question of such vital im- 

 portance as that above referred to, and which seemed likely again 

 to occupy the attention of the Legislature at no distant period ; and 

 accordingly, on the llth of July last, they resolved, 



" That it was expedient that the subject should receive the atten- 

 tion of the Council at an early period of the next Session, and that, 

 as a preliminary step, its consideration should be referred to the 

 Government Grant Committee." 



In pursuance of this resolution, the Government Grant Committee 

 met, and appointed a Sub-committee, consisting of seven Members 

 of their own Committee, together with your officers, to prepare a 

 Report to them on the subject. That Sub-committee met on the 

 7th of October ; and on this occasion they had before them the 

 replies to two Circulars, requesting opinions on the above question, 

 the one dated the 1 6th of July, and addressed by myself to the 

 Members of the Government Grant Committee ; the other dated the 

 20th of August, and addressed to the Members of the General Com- 

 mittee of the British Association by the Secretary of that Associa- 

 tion, in pursuance of a resolution passed at Cheltenham on the 1 3th 

 of August last. 



The Sub-committee were therefore in a very favourable position 

 for considering the various important matters involved in the ques- 

 tion on which they were summoned to deliberate ; and they 

 devoted two successive days to the consideration of their Report 

 under circumstances peculiarly well adapted to elicit, by prolonged 

 discussion, apart from the formality of ordinary meetings, the views 

 and sentiments of individual Members. 



In my former Address I alluded to a proposal to constitute a new 

 Board of Science, somewhat analogous in its functions to the late 



