61 



CHAPTER III. 



1831—1840. 



At the Anniversary Meeting of 1831 the Marquess of Lansdowne 

 resigned the office of President, and Lord Stanley (afterwards 

 the thirteenth Earl of Derby) was unanimously elected. An 

 entry in the minutes records the appreciation by the Council of 

 the services rendered by Lord Lansdowne " in accepting office 

 on the melancholy occasion of the death of the Founder^ and 

 first President of the Society " ; and in consequence he was 

 made an Honorary Member. Mr. J. Morrison, the Treasurer, 

 was succeeded by Mr. Charles Drummond, in whose family the 

 office still remains. 



At the Annual Meeting in 1833 Mr. N. A. Vigors, who 

 had been elected Member for County Carlow, gave up the 

 Secretaryship the better to discharge his Parliamentary duties. 

 He was then formally thanked for his services, and at the 

 following General Meeting, on May 2, the Council recorded their 

 high sense of his eminent services, and their cordial concurrence 

 in the thanks already given to him. The following paragraphs 

 are from their Report : 



His zeal for the welfare of the Institution to which he has devoted 

 himself during the seven years which have elapsed since its establishment, 

 his scientific acquirements, and his readiness of access and of communica- 

 tion contributed materially in the earlier days of the Society to its success, 

 and have since continued to advance its interests. . . . 



In the donation of the first Secretary, and in the liberal present of the 

 Sumatran collection of the first President, the late Sir Stamford Raffles, the 

 Museum originated ; and the Council look forward to the day when, in a 

 building worthy of its reception, there may be placed, by the liberality of 

 the members, lasting memorials of its joint founders. As in the case of the 



* This is the first— perhaps the only — instance in which the title of Founder 

 is applied to Sir Stamford Eaffles, in an official document, without qualification 

 of some kind. It seems to have escaped notice hitherto, for which reason attention 

 is called to it. 



