attempted to bring forward there those charges against the 

 Council, which he has since thought proper to carry before 

 the Government. 



" In the next place, the Council have to express their 

 grea^ regret that the different Essays of Mr. Petrie, about 

 which Sir W. Betham shows so much concern, have not yet 

 been published ; but they beg to observe, that the peculiar 

 circumstances of the case have thrown entirely into the 

 author's hands the publication of the Essay on the Round 

 Towers of Ireland, — and that, while he is employed uponthis, 

 which is a very large work, it would be useless to press upon 

 him the publication of the others. Mr. Petrie, however, has 

 addressed to the Council a statement of the causes which 

 have retarded the appearance of his Essays, and this state- 

 ment is herewith transmitted to your Lordship. 



" The Council also take leave to transmit two Estimates — 

 one from the Publishers of Mr. Petrie's Essay on the Round 

 Towers, the other from the Printer of that work. By the 

 first of these it appears that the pubHshing price of the vo- 

 lume which Mr. Petrie has engaged to give to the Academy 

 for thirty shillings (and the printing of which is now greatly 

 advanced), cannot be less than two guineas, and is more 

 likely to be 2^ guineas. By the second estimate it appears 

 that if the work were printed by the Academy, as a volume 

 of its Transactions, the impression being limited, as usual, to 

 500 copies, each copy would cost the Academy above three 

 pounds ; that is, more than double the price for which 

 Mr, Petrie has undertaken to supply it, Yet Sir W. Betham 

 has not hesitated to state, that the Council have allowed 

 Mr. Petrie ' to print the work for his own benefit, virtually 

 at the expense of the Academy ;' and that, by agreeing to pay 

 him thirty shillings a copy for 450 copies, they have given 

 him * booksellers' profit' — and have ' made him a present of 

 ^234 I3s. Ad. of the Academy's money, which would pay for 



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