DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THE REPLY OF COUNCIL. 



1. 



[Extract.] 

 " To the President and Council of the Royal Irish Academy. 



" Gentlemen, — I have the honour to address you in 

 compliance with the request of the Secretaries of the Aca- 

 demy, that I would supply the Council with a statement of 

 the circumstances which have caused so much delay in the 

 publication of some Essays read by me at the Academy, as 

 well as to explain other matters charged against me, in a 

 letter addressed to Lord Ehot, Chief Secretary for Ireland, 

 in order that it may be appended to the answer of the 

 Council to that letter. 



" In the first place, then, I beg to acknowledge, that 

 whatever blame may be attached to the delay in the publi- 

 cation of these papers, it should fall alone on me ; for the 

 Academy has no power, either moral or legal, to force authors 

 to print papers in its Transactions, if it be contrary to their 

 wish or convenience to do so. The Academy, like all other 

 institutions of the kind, has been chartered chiefly for the 

 purpose of fostering science and literature, by giving facility 

 to the publication of Essays considered valuable, but which, 

 from their abstract or arch geological nature, could not be 

 given to the world without great probability, if not certainty, 

 of pecuniary loss to their authors, by pubHshin^ them at 

 their own risk ; and hence it becomes a high honour to an 

 author to be permitted to publish in its Transactions, if it be 

 his wish or convenience to do so, but not an obligation on 

 him if otherwise, or that he should prefer publishing on his 

 own account. Such at least has been my impression on this 

 matter, and such also has been the opinion of Sir William 

 Betham, as often expressed while in friendship with me, and 

 urged with a view to persuade me to do as he said he was 



