REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. Xx1X 
“ Nov. 6, 1857. 
“ My Lorp,—At the Meeting of the British Association which was held 
at Dublin in August last, a Resolution was adopted proposing the continuance 
of the system of Magnetical Observations which was commenced under the 
auspices of the Royal Society and of the British Association in 1840; and a 
Committee, consisting of the President of the Association, Rev. Dr. Robinson, 
and General Sabine, was appointed, to request the cooperation of the Presi- 
dent and Council of the Royal Society in the endeavour to attain this object, 
and to take in conjunction with them such steps as may appear desirable for 
that end. If this proposal should commend itself to your Lordship’s judg- 
ment, and that of the Council of the Royal Society, I have to request, on the 
part of the gentlemen above named, that you will be pleased to nominate a 
Committee of the Royal Society to confer with them, and to take such further 
steps in conjunction with them as may seem expedient. 
“T have the honour to be, My Lord, 
“Your most obedient Servant, 
(Signed) “ H. Lioyp.” 
“ To the Right Hon. the Lord Wrottesley, P.R.S.” 
In consequence of this letter, the President and Council of the Royal 
Society appointed a Committee, consisting of Sir John Herschel, Bart., the 
Rev. Dr. Whewell, the Rev. The Dean of Ely, and the Astronomer Royal 
(who had been members of the Committee of Physics, by whom the former 
Report on terrestrial magnetism in 1839-40 had been drawn up) to consider 
the progress and present state of Magnetical Investigation; and to take, in 
conjunction with the Committee appointed by the British Association, such 
steps as should appear advisable for its further prosecution ; including, if it 
should be deemed desirable, an application to Government. 
The mode of proceeding pursued by the two Committees has been hitherto 
that of independent deliberation, with occasional intereommunication by 
correspondence. The conclusions which have been arrived at by the two 
Committes being, it is understood, substantially the same, a united Meeting 
has been appointed to take place at Leeds, in the present week, at which a 
joint report may be drawn up, and may be presented to the General Com- 
mittee at its meeting on Monday next, when such further steps may be 
taken in reference to the subject as may appear desirable. 
b. The General Committee assembled at Dublin dirécted that “an appli- 
cation should be made to Her Majesty’s Government to send a vessel to 
examine and survey the entrance to the Zambesi River in South Africa, and 
to ascend the river as far as may be found practicable for navigation.” 
The President, and the Committee to whom the charge of this application 
was entrusted, having placed themselves in communication with Dr. Living- 
stone, presented the following Memorial to the Earl of Clarendon, Her Ma- 
jesty’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs :— 
«Dr. Livingstone’s successful travels in Africa, and the account which he 
has given of them at public meetings in the metropolis and in several of the 
principal provincial towns of the United Kingdom, have excited throughout 
the country a strong desire to obtain more full particulars regarding the 
productions, capabilities, and accessibility of that portion of the globe. 
“The Zambesi River appears by Dr. Livingstone’s account to furnish means 
of communication with the interior of Southern Africa similar to those which 
the Quorra and Binue have been found to afford in Central Africa. The 
object of the present application is to bring under the consideration of Her 
Majesty's Government the expediency of availing themselves of the oppor- 
