236 Royal Irish Academy. 



Science,' that is, the series defining its functions in 'the Use- 

 ful Sciences ' [supra, 2). 



Charter of '' Lastly, it is alleged that the Supplemental Charter of 1866 



confirms to the Society all powers, &c., which it then possessed 

 under its original Charter, ' or in any other legal manner what- 

 ever ' (on which Council observes that no powers could arise in 

 any legal manner by acts ultra vires) and emphatically, that the 

 Select Committee of the House of Commons had {supra, 3) re- 



Eeport of ported in favour of the Society's publishing selections from its 



Scientific Transactions. 



"13. From the terms in which this part of their case is stated 

 by the Delegates, it might be supposed that the opinion of the 

 Committee was expressed in reference to Science generally, 

 without any such restriction as that which the Governing Body 



Eelied on as if of the Society now seeks to repudiate. It is in the following 



science gene- words: 'In 1836 a Committee of the House of Commons was 



rally. ' appointed "with a view to a wider extension of the advan- 



' tages of the Annual Parliamentary Grant to the Society," 

 ' and this Committee in their 10th Resolution recommended 

 ' that the Council of the Society should cause a " selection from 

 ' the Papers read at the Evening Scientific Meetings to be printed 

 ' and published." To this resolution the Society, at the solici- 

 ' tation of the Government, unanimoiisly assented on the lOth 

 ' November, 1836 ; and from that time the continuous and more 

 ' systematic publication of scientific communications dates. It 

 ' had therefore existed for thirty years in its fuller form when 

 ' it was further " granted and confirmed" to the Society by its 

 ' Supplemental Charter.' And the Statement proceeds to other 

 matters, as if the recommendations of the Committee had been 

 thus set out in their full extent and meaning. That this is not 

 so will appear at once from the Eeport of the Committee, and 

 will be abundantly confirmed by examination of the voluminous 

 evidence on which that Report was founded. 



Eeport does "14. In page 16 of the Report is to be found the following 



cois'truction. Paragraph, headed ' Publication ' :— 



" ' The volume which is at present annually published by the 

 ' Dublin Society contains little else than the Minutes of its Pro- 

 ' ceedings. Its bulk is unnecessarily increased by the custom of 



