538 



" This theorem may be extended as follows : If a curve be 

 such that only three tangents can be drawn parallel to a given 

 line, any tangent will intercept, on three such tangents, seg- 

 ments whose product will bear a given ratio to the segment 

 intercepted on another fixed parallel." 



The Secretary read a communication from Mr. Bindon, 

 and presented a tracing from the original credentials which 

 Father Hugo de Burgo carried with him to Belgium in 1644. 



" With the view of making my search as useful and com- 

 plete as possible, I thought it advisable, after having examined 

 the Burgundian Library, to visit the Archives du Royaume of 

 the Belgian government. 



" In that collection the original document, difac simile of 

 which is now presented to the reader, will be found. It is 

 the credential which Father Hugh de Burgo, a Franciscan 

 friar, carried with him when visiting Belgium, as the represen- 

 tative of the Irish Catholic Confederates assembled at Kilkenny 

 in the year 1644. 



" It is presumed that this document is of some historical 

 interest, presenting as it does the signatures of several leading 

 members of the " Supreme Council," including those of its 

 President, Richard Butler Viscount Mountgarret, and the se- 

 cretary. Sir Richard Belling. The other signatures are those of 

 Thomas Preston, the brother of Lord Gormanstown, and com- 

 mander of the confederate forces in Leinster ; Thomas Walsh, 

 Archbishop of Cashel ; Malachy Quelly or O' Kelly, Arch- 

 bishop of Tuam, who was killed leading an attack upon Sligo; 

 Sir Daniel O'Bryen, one of the Protestants who had joined the 

 Catholic Confederates; Robert Lynch, and Terence O'Shaug- 

 nessy. The ninth name 1 have not been able to decipher. 



" This mission of Father de Burgo to the Low Countries 

 has not been noticed, as far I can discover, by any historians 

 treating of the wars of 1641-1652. Carte, in his Life of the 

 Duke of Ormond, states that " Father Hugh Burke" was sent 



