565 



schemes which may be hereafter proposed for effecting a like object. 

 It would be unreasonable to expect that any very general assent 

 should be immediately given to any plan which has sufficient novelty 

 to prevent its ready acceptance by some Fellows of this Society and 

 others, who seem to have an instinctive dread of any Government 

 interference with the independence of societies, and take a just pride 

 in discharging, in this country, by their own gratuitous services, 

 those functions which in other countries are performed by men ap- 

 pointed and paid by the State. 



The views which have been put forward may seem to be in some 

 degree confirmed by the recent correspondence and discussions 

 respecting the ^61000 entrusted to this Society for the promotion 

 of scientific objects. It would be improper to go into any detail on 

 a subject which has already been more than sufficiently discussed, 

 and on some occasions in a spirit which was hardly called for or 

 justified by the facts. Whilst the reasons assigned for withholding 

 the grant seemed doubtless to imply a misapprehension as to the 

 purpose for which it was originally conferred, and the part fulfilled 

 by the Society in the administration of it, at the same time it was 

 the duty of the Government to require a statement of the mode 

 in which the public money had been expended, and also of the 

 grounds on which a renewal of the grant was solicited ; and it is to 

 be regretted that any remarks should have been publicly made on 

 the withholding of the grant until that information had been pre- 

 pared and laid before the Executive, and they had had an oppor- 

 tunity afforded them of considering it, and deciding on their future 

 course. 



The Government, we may presume, are now satisfied with our 

 distribution of the grant, and convinced of its utility, and they have 

 decided in favour of its continuance. The whole matter has also been 

 placed on a more satisfactory basis, by the resolution which has been 

 adopted of making the grant for the future the subject of a special 

 annual application to Parliament, to be made by the Government. 



I allude however to this subject, because if it be not an example 

 of misapprehension on the part of the Executive of that kind to which 

 reference has been made, I would at least direct your attention to the 

 account which has been recently published in our Proceedings of the 

 manner in which the 5000 already granted by the Government has 



