244 Royal Irish Academy. 



"APPENDIX 



^0. 1. 



' •' EoTAL Ieish Academt, 



''May 2d, 1877. 

 " Mt deah Sie, 



" I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of tlie lOtli 

 inst. ; and in reference thereto, I am directed by the Council of 

 the Eoyal Irish Academy to remind you, that they have not 

 declined the holding of the Conference proposed by the Council 

 of the Eoyal Dublin Society, but have agreed to it on the only 

 basis on which it seemed to them it could properly be held. This 

 they did through respect for the Council of the Eoyal Dublin 

 Society, and because they thought the conference, rightly con- 

 ducted, might have led to useful results. 



" It must, however, be understood that, in their opinion, the 

 Council of the Eoyal Dublin Society, in devising measures for 

 the promotion of General Science, is occupying itself with a 

 subject with which, under the Charters of the Society, it is not 

 authorized to deal. It was established for the promotion of 

 Husbandry and other useful Arts, and has never obtained 

 authority to undertake the cultivation of Abstract Science. The 

 Council, however, have observed with regret that some ]^embers 

 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 un- 

 warranted by its existing Charters, is to engage it in a perma- 

 nent competition with the Eoyal Irish Academy, by which 

 Science in the largest sense has (in accordance with its Charter), 

 been cultivated ; and this competition, it is believed, will 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 

 representation on the subject to Her Majesty's Government, a 



