i4ih December, ipog. 



Sir John Byers, M.D., President, in the Chair. 



THE RIVER PLATE OF SOUTH AMERICA AND 

 THE FALKLAND ISLANDS." 



By Mr. Robert J. Kennedy, C.M.G., D.L. 



Abstract. 



The Chairman said they were on that evening to have the 

 privilege of hearing a lecture from an able member of an old 

 County Down family, who was at present on a well-earned 

 holiday from his public duties, and an address from his 

 distinguished wife, who was daughter of a well-known 

 Ulster nobleman. Viscount Bangor. Mr. Kennedy had 

 spent all his professional life in the diplomatic service. 

 He had been, among other places, at Madrid under the 

 renowned Sir Austen Henry Layard, who was celebrated for his 

 archaeological discoveries in Asiatic Turkey — notably at Nineveh 

 and at Babylon — while at St. Petersburg and at Constantinople 

 Mr. Kennedy had served under the greatest of the Queen 

 Victorian ambassadors, the late Lord Dufferin. He was after- 

 wards appointed his Majesty's Minister in Montenegro, and at 

 present he occupied the responsible position of Minister to the 

 Republic of Uruguay. Sir John Byers said it was indeed 

 remarkable the number of Ulstermen who had, like Mr. Kennedy, 

 served their country with great distinction in the diplomatic 

 sphere. The Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, that most versatile of 

 men, was the most distinguished. Then, among others they had 

 George first Earl Macartney, of Lissanoure, County Antrim, who 

 was the first British envoy appointed to China ; and the Right 

 Hon. James Bryce, O.M., born in Belfast, who was now Ambas- 



