Minutes of Proceedings. 249 



by Parliament to ' the encouragement of Manufactures, Arts, 

 and Sciences.' This is only one of a series of Acts of Parliament, 

 before and since, which recognize the right of the Society to 

 cultivate Science. We are to refer also to page 1 of the ' Report 

 of the Special Commission of the House of Commons of 1836, 

 and the Supplemental Charter of 1866, in both of which docu- 

 ments this Society is correctly described as a Society for the 

 promotion of Sciences as well as of " Husbandry and other 

 Useful Arts.' 



" Even if it could be shown that the prolonged labours of the 

 Society in relation to Science and Art before 1866 were un- 

 authorized by its Charter, and stood only on a usage and the 

 direction of Parliament, this can no longer be maintained, be- 

 cause the Supplemental Charter of 1866, in the 10th clause, 

 declares that the Society ' shall continue to have all such the 

 same jurisdictions, powers, authorities, and discretions as such 

 Society now has under or by virtue of the said hereinbefore 

 recited Charter or Letters Patent, or in any other lawful manner 

 whatever. And we do hereby further for Us, our Heirs and 

 Successors, grant and confirm unto them all such jurisdictions, 

 powers, authorities, and discretions accordingly" — thus afiarm- 

 ing the Chartered Right of the Society to any extension of its 

 operations for which there then existed prescriptive usage. 



" The History of the usage which is thus granted and con- 

 firmed by Charter, so far as it related to the reception of Scien- 

 tific communications and their publication, is as follows : — 



'' Up to 1832, such communications were occasionally made 

 at the ordinary Meetings of the Society and occasionally pub- 

 lished. In that year this branch of the Society's labours was 

 better organized by establishing separate Meetings for reading 

 and discussing Scientific Papers, under a Resolution passed on 

 29th March, 1832. 



"In 1836 a Committee of the House of Commons was ap- 

 pointed, ' with a view to a wider extension of the advantages of 

 the Annual Parliamentary Grant to the Society,' and this Com- 

 mittee, 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.' 



[30^^] 



