Minutes of Proceedings. 37 



. Charter of tlie Society, it is not authorised to deal. It was esta- 

 blished for the promotion of Husbandry and the useful Arts, and has 

 never obtained authority to undertake the cultivation of abstract 

 Science. 



" The Council, however, have observed with regret that some Mem- 

 bers of the Society are seeking to divert it from its proper functions 

 which it has discharged with honour to itself and advantage to Ireland, 

 and to embark it in the new career of the promotion of abstract Science, 

 The effect of this course of proceeding, which is quite unwarranted by its 

 existing Charters, is to engage it in a permanent competition with the 

 Eoyal Irish Academy, by which Science, in the largest sense, has (in ac- 

 cordance with its Charter) been cultivated ; and this competition will, 

 it is believed, be injurious to both Bodies, as well as to the country at 

 large, which will lose the services in relation to industrial subjects 

 hitherto rendered by the Eoyal Dublin Society. 



" The Council have therefore felt it their duty to make a represen- 

 tation on the subject to Her Majesty's Government, a copy of which I 

 have been instructed to send you, for the information of the Council of 

 the Royal Dublin Society, as soon as I shall be in possession of an ac- 

 knowledgment of its receipt by the Government Department to which 

 it has been addressed. 



" I am, my dear Sir, 



" Very faithfully yours, 



" JoH]!T K. Ingram, 



" Secretary of Council. 

 '" Geoege JoHifSTOiSrE Stonet, Esq,., P. E. S., 

 ^'Secretary, Royal Dullin Society.''^ 



[7] 



** Eoyal Ikish Academy House, 



"DtJBLnf, 22ncl of May, 1877. 

 *' Gentlemen-, 



" I am directed by the Council of the Eoyal Irish Academy to ask 

 your attention to one of the heads of agreement between the Govern- 

 ment and the Eoyal Dublin Society, embodied in the Memorandum of 

 Provisions agreed to on the 5th of March last. 



"The Eoyal Dublin Society was established by Charter in 1750, 



