84 Royal Zoological Society of Ireland 



tive recreation of the people, and we have had repeated 

 opportunities of having the opinion of men of great 

 attainments, deeply interested in the welfare of the 

 working classes, and well acquainted with their ordinary 

 habits ; these eminent persons have uniformly testified 

 to their high estimation of the valuable consequences 

 evidently resulting from opening the Gardens on Sunday 

 after divine service, and when they have seen them 

 crowded by people bearing the marks of weekly toil, 

 going about in families, enjoying healthful and reflective 

 recreation, instructing and being instructed, they have 

 said, but for this garden these people would too, probably, 

 be in places destructive to mental and bodily health, 

 incapacitating themselves for fulfilling their duties ; 

 while here they are provided with a resource from which 

 they go home refreshed, and with quiet minds, fitting 

 them to work happily for the next week at their several 

 occupations. We, therefore, believe that we cannot over- 

 estimate the value of this particular portion of the 

 working of the Society. We enclose for your Excellency's 

 information a copy of a Report of the Council in 1847, 

 which exemplifies much of the foregoing, also a summary 

 of the admissions, receipts, and expenditure of the Society 

 since its foundation ; and, finally, on the part of the 

 Society we submit this, our humble petition, that your 

 Excellency will be pleased to recommend to Her Majesty's 

 Government that an annual grant of such sum as may 

 appear proper, be made in aid of the funds of the Society, 

 on the special public grounds we have herein shown." 



To the foregoing no official reply has yet been made ; 

 but in the published Minutes of the Royal Dublin Society 

 there appears the following extract from a Minute of the 

 Board of Trade, dated 11th April, 1854 :— 



" My Lords will recommend that an aid, probably to 

 the extent of £500 :: be given to the Gardens of the 

 Zoological Society, through the agency of the Royal 

 Dublin Society, if that body will accept the trust. 

 Though their Lordships would take guarantees that in 

 return for this sum the public should have adequate 

 facilities offered for their admission, either gratuitously 

 or on very low terms, on certain days of the week ; still 



* The Grant of £500 for the current year has subsequently been made. 





