EARLY HISTORY OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



Second Charter provides for a Council of twenty-one, of 

 whom ten are to be changed each year on St. Andrew's 

 day. The election of the Council, including the President, 

 the Treasurer, and the two Secretaries, is placed in the 

 hands of the Fellows, as is also the election of new Fellows. 

 Otherwise, the government of the Society, including the 

 making of laws, statutes, and ordinances, and the trans- 

 action of all matters relating to the management of the 

 Society and its affairs, is entrusted to the President and 

 Council alone, the Fellows having no direct voice in these 

 matters. 



With some interruptions in 1665, on account of the 

 Plague, and later on account of the Great Fire of London, 

 the meetings continued to be held at Gresham College. 



Gresham College, formerly the mansion-house of Sir 

 Thomas Gresham, situated in Bishopsgate Street and 

 extending back to Broad Street, was not only the cradle 

 of the Royal Society, but its home until 1710. 



Sir Thomas Gresham was a merchant of great distinc- 

 tion, the adviser of the Government in financial matters, 

 and frequently employed in diplomatic missions ; the 

 Founder of the Royal Exchange and of Gresham College. 



The representation of the College on Plate I. is repro- 

 duced from a drawing copied from an engraving in Ward's 

 Lives of the Gresham Professors, which appears in Weld's 

 History of the Royal Society. 



A pamphlet in the British Museum, entitled Account of 



the Proceedings of the Council of the Royal Society, in order 



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