164 RECORD OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



(a) The Election of Fellows. 



In the Statutes as amended in 1776 the regulations for the election of 

 Fellows remain on the whole unchanged, save that it is precisely stated that 

 twenty-one is 'the competent number 1 for making an election, a majority of 

 two-thirds being necessary, and in the Statute relating to what came to be 

 called the ' privileged class ', the words ' Foreign Prince or Ambassador ' are 

 replaced by the words ' Foreign Sovereign Prince, or the son of a Sovereign 

 Prince, or an Ambassador to the Court of Great Britain \ 



(b) Composition Fee. 



In the Edition of 1752, as stated above, no mention is made of any * bond ' 

 or 'composition fee \ but in the next year, 1753 (June 7), the Statute, Cap. VI, 

 Stat. viii, concerning Foreigners and persons residing more than 40 miles from 

 London, was repealed, and the following enactment was substituted : 



' That no one of his Majesties subjects, or any other person residing in his 

 Majesties Dominions, who shall be elected a Fellow of the Society, shall be 

 deemed an actual Fellow thereof, nor shall the name of any such person be 

 Registered in the Journal Book, or printed in the List of Fellows of the Society, 

 until such Person shall have paid his admission Fee, and given the usual Bond, 

 or paid the Sum of Twenty-one pounds for the use of the Society in lieu of 

 contributions : But that upon such payment or giving Bond as aforesaid, it 

 shall be lawful for the Society to give leave for the name of any such person 

 so elected as aforesaid to be entered in the Journal Book, and printed in the 

 list of Fellows of the Society : Provided always that no such person shall have 

 liberty to Vote at any Election or Meeting of the Society, before he shall be 

 duly admitted a Fellow thereof pursuant to the former Statute. 1 



This is the first time that the Statutes contain any reference to a com- 

 position fee. 



In 1766 (December 11) a Statute was passed increasing the composition fee 

 from twenty to twenty-six guineas ; and the Statute of 1753 just quoted re- 

 appears, with some slight changes, in the Edition of 1776 as Stat. viii of Cap. I, 

 the ' sum of twenty-one pounds ' being altered into ' the sum appointed ', and 

 this the Chapter on payments by Fellows states to be twenty-six guineas. 



(c) Foreign Members. 



The Statutes of 1776 contain, what the Statutes of 1752 and 1663 do not, 

 special regulations for Fellows ' residing in foreign parts and not subjects of 

 the British Dominions '. 



So early as 1664 a Statute was passed providing that persons ' residing in 

 Forraigne parts \ who are elected Fellows, should not pay fees ; in 1716 a 

 reference occurs to Foreigners who are Fellows; and in 1737 a resolution 

 of Council (which did not become a Statute) proposed that Foreigners resident 



