144 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Association the name of the vessel which had been the means of 

 bringing it into being. Accordingly, about the year 1705, the Ouzel 

 Galley Society was founded. 



The books of the Proceedings of the Society for the first half- 

 century of its existence haye long been irrecoverably lost, and only 

 the more recent minute-books are now extant. But its rules and 

 regulations, with a list of members, were printed in 1859, as col- 

 lected fi'om the books of Proceedings which were then available. 

 These rules and regulations include the Eeport of a Committee of the 

 Society appointed in 1799 "to inquire into and prepare a declaration 

 of the rules, orders, and customs of the Galley." "We are thus 

 enabled to understand the precise objects of the Society and the mode 

 in which it was organized. From this it appears that it was the duty 

 of all members of the Galley to sit as arbitrators va. the settlement of 

 such disputes as might be referred to them, " provided all the arbitra- 

 tors chosen are members of the Galley." Parties were prohibited from 

 making any personal applications to members respecting any matter in 

 dispute, and all proceedings were regulated under the guidance of an 

 officer known as the Kegistrar, to whom a sum of money, aiTanged 

 according to a fixed scale, was payable by the parties seeking arbitra- 

 tion, "to insure the payment of the Galley Fees," which were 

 appropriated, after payment of the costs of the award, to a charitable 

 fund. "Within the limits of the Society parties were entitled to the 

 choice of theii" arbitrators, but with the arbitrators when chosen lay 

 the appointment of an umpire. 



Such were the purposes for which the Society was fonnally 

 constituted ; but it had, or grew to have, other functions at once 

 benevolent and conviA-ial, which appear in time to have engrossed a 

 large share of the attention of its members. From the year 1770 tlie 

 subscription appears to have been a guinea ; but on Xovember 1 1 , 

 1801, " it appearing by the bursar's accounts that the subscription of 

 one guinea per annum is insufficient to pay the annual dinners," it 

 was raised to a guinea and a -half. Two years later, no doubt for the 

 same reason, it was raised to £2 5s. Qd. ; and the frequent occurrence 

 of the word " dinner "in its rules may, perhaps, be held to account 

 for the mourning accents with which surviving members still speak of 

 this ancient Society. 3Iost of the business of the Society was trans- 

 acted at or after dinner, except at the November meeting, which was 

 held immediately before dinner. Certain it is, at all events, that 

 while continuing to perform its more serious functions, the Ouzel 

 Galley Society became highly popular among the merchants of Dublin 



