234 



Royal Irish Academy. 



pursuance 

 thereof. 



Draft New 

 Charter pre- 



For advance- 

 ment of 

 Science 

 generally. 



Containing 



inaccurate 



recital, 



tending to 



injurious 



rivalry vrith 



Academy. 



to the powers of the 'Museum Act,' whereby the Memorandum 

 of Agreement of 5th March, 1877 {supra, 6), so far as the provisions 

 thereof remained unperformed, hut without prejudice to anything 

 done in pursuance thereof, was annulled and superseded ; and 

 consequently in the absence of any reason to suppose any further 

 or supplemental Agreement for a Charter to exist, the provisions 

 on that subject above mentioned are assumed to be no longer 

 operative. 



" 9. The five years in question drawing to an end, the Society 

 lately appointed a Committee of Ee-organization. It prepared 

 a Draft of a new Charter which was adopted by the Council of 

 the Society. The Draft recited the several Charters of the 

 Society, the Museum Act, and the agreement in pursuance 

 thereof of 5th March, 1881 ; but did not show any direct 

 Parliamentary or Governmental sanction for any extension of 

 the original functions. It, however, purported to grant that 

 the Society under its original name, otherwise the Royal 

 Dublin Society, or the Royal Society of Dublin, should con- 

 tinue incorporated for, inter alia, ' the advancement of Science,' 

 with power to confer the title of Fellow on a limited number 

 of its corporate members ; and it recited in the preamble that 

 the Society was ' better known as the Hoyal Dublin Society, or 

 Royal Society of Dublin.' So far as concerns the name ' Royal 

 Society of Dublin,' this recital was contrary to the fact. The 

 Society had never theretofore been known by that name. But 

 the combined effect of the extension of functions, and of the 

 power to confer Fellowships, would have been to invest the 

 Society with an apparent status similar to that of the Royal 

 Societies of London and Edinburgh — a position which in Ireland 

 has always belonged to the Royal Irish Academy alone. 



"The Hoyal Irish Academy: hoio affected, and its position in 

 relation to the action of the Society. 



1786, Charter " 10. The Royal Irish Academy was incorporated in 1786, for 

 Acad°einv ^^^ ^^^ promotion of Science, Polite Literature, and Antiquities. 

 Claims scienti- While maintaining its position as the leading and the only Char- 

 tered Scientific Body outside the Universities in Ireland, it has 

 been and is well content that the Society should cultivate the 



fie pre-emi 

 nence. 



