Frrcuson—Address delivered before the Academy. 189° 
study among such examples of the mighty and beautiful works of God 
and of man. 
One gallery at least of the Museum, when it shall at length be 
established amongst us, will be amazingly rich and interesting to the 
Trish people—that, namely, which will contain the collection of 
Celtic antiquities now here in the Academy House. Under pressure 
of an intimation that our annual Parliamentary grant depended on 
our contributing this collection, to form the nucleus of the local 
National Museum, the Academy yielded to the demand of her Majesty’s 
Government that we should hand it over to the State in trust for the 
Irish public; and, as soon as a suitable place of deposit in the 
proposed Building shall be provided, it will, wberrimd fide, carry out 
its engagement. But it did refuse another demand pressed upon it at 
the same time, that it should so far become a branch of the South 
Kensington Establishment as to apply for its Parliamentary grant and 
vouch its expenditure through that Institution; and adhering at all 
risks to that refusal, it had the satisfaction to witness the withdrawal 
of the Government’s demand, which all subsequent experience has 
shown was rightly and wisely abandoned. What we have acquired 
while supported by public subsidies we hold in ultimate trust for the 
State; but our organization has hitherto been, and I trust will always 
continue to be, that of an independent, self-governed Corporation, 
carrying on work of voluntary investigation, with which Teaching 
Institutions, as such, have nothing to do, beyond adopting from time 
to time such additions to their formulas of instruction as those investi- 
gations may happily lead up to. ‘he Academy depends for its 
annual grant on the liberality of Parliament, the constitutional 
guardian of the public purse, moved by the recommendation of the 
Queen’s Government of the day. At the time of the Union, its aid in 
the promotion of social intelligence and refinement was deemed worth 
an annual acknowledgment of about £160. Its increased activity, 
and, presumably, the increased value of its services to Science and 
Literature, have been so far recognized by successive Administrations 
and by the Imperial Parliament that, for many years back, besides being 
provided with this excellent house, it receives an annual grant amount- 
ing to £2000; not excessive as compared with the necessary wants of an 
Institution prosecuting so many undertakings and maintaining such an 
establishment ; but far from penurious or unhandsome. The Academy, 
indeed, has always found the Queen’s Government ready to give a 
favourable consideration to its wants where these have been for 
clearly-defined and realizable purposes of utility. At the present 
moment it is even in advance of our ability to give employment to its 
bounty. But rare learning, if we would profit by it, must be allowed 
its own leisure ; and although the Annals of Ulster have been called 
for with some impatience, whatever delay has occurred has been in 
the interests of historical knowledge. For it ought to be known that 
the text and translation of these Annals down to the time of the 
Conquest are already published; and that what we wait for are 
