Minutes of Proceedings. 321 



Member of this Academy must feel grateful to his Excellency, and, 

 may I be permitted to add, to the noble lady who is the companion 

 of his life and the sharer of his exalted position, for their exertions 

 on behalf of our suffering poor. We welcome him also as, by 

 virtue of liis high office. Visitor of this institution. He has already, 

 not in the technical or legal sense, but from the impulse of enlightened 

 curiosity, visited our collection ; and I entertain the hope that he may 

 be induced to be present at some of our Meetings when we are in a 

 position to offer liim a specially interesting bill of fare. Some years 

 ^go, it will be remembered, the question was raised whether the charge 

 of the Parliamentary grant to the Academy should not be taken from 

 the Irish Government, and whether the wants and requirements 

 •of the Academy should not be placed in the care of a body having 

 its seat in London. On that occasion we protested strongly against 

 the proposed change, and we urged our desire that all our com- 

 munications with the Government should pass through the Lord 

 Lieutenant. We carried our point, and we have never had reason 

 to regret it. We have been treated by the Yiceroys of successive 

 administrations with a courtesy and consideration for which we desire 

 to express our respectful thanks, and we feel confident that we shall 

 not fare worse with our present Yiceroy than with any of his pre- 

 decessors. I give you ' The health of the Earl of Aberdeen, Lord 

 Lieutenant of Ireland.' " 



His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant, on rising to respond, said : — 



"Mr. President and Gentlemen, I feel very deeply the extreme 

 kindness with which you have received those more than kind words 

 which have fallen from your President. If I were to attempt to allude 

 to the several remarks which he has made, I could only do so in a 

 somewhat deprecatory tone. But there were some allusions to which 

 I, as Avell as you, could give a most hearty assent, more especially to 

 those references to Sir Samuel Ferguson, whose absence I in common 

 with yourselves regret, though I cannot claim the personal acquaint- 

 ance, and experience of his abilities and the charms of his company, 

 which, of course, many here can claim. I need hardly say how deeply 

 I appreciate and recognise the value of such a hearty greeting as you 

 have been pleased to give me as Her Majesty's representative. The 

 loyalty of such an assembly as this is well known, and is to be 



R.I. A. MINUTES, SESSION 1885-7. L'^^J 



