72 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



" The foregoing is a brief statement of the views of the Founders of 

 this Society, and of the advantages intended by its institution, the 

 plan of which may be enlarged, or curtailed, according to the sup- 

 port it may receive.'' 



XIII. Intelligence and Miscellajieous Articles. 



NOTES ON A LETTER ADDRESSED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE 

 ROYAL SOCIETY TO THE PRESIDENT. BY C.BABBAGE,ESQ.F.R.S. 



" HHHE Secretary of the Royal Society, in a letter addressed to the 



•*• President *, proposes to refute a charge I have made against 

 the Royal Society in my late work ' On the Decline of Science in 

 England.' 



" If the facts stated in that book are correct, explanation is difficult, 

 refutation impossible. 



" The case is shortly this : 



" The Secretary either did write down the rough minutes of its pro- 

 ceedings during the meeting of the Council on the 26th November, 

 J829, or he did not. 



" If he did not, they must have been written from memory. Is any 

 argument necessary against such an unheard-of course ? 



" If the Secretary wrote the rough minutes during the sitting, he 

 must have written down the name of Captain Beaufort, which he 

 admits was the one decided upon ; and it was impossible that he could 

 know of Captain Beaufort's refusal until late the next day, because 

 that gentleman did not communicate to the President his intention of 

 declining the nomination until that time. . 



" The paper preserved amongst our records which professes to be the 

 rough minute of the Council of the 26th November, is a single folio half- 

 sheet, written on both sides ; towards the middle of the second page 

 are the names of the persons recommended. If that of Captain Beau- 

 fort were found in this list with a line drawn through it by the pen, 

 and that of Sir John Franklin substituted, it might have been argued 

 that although the subsequent alteration of a rough minute was highly 

 irregular, yet it could give no just ground to suppose that it was in- 

 tended to conceal from the Society the fact of the refusal. 



" But any member of the Royal Society may satisfy himself that the 

 name of Captain Beaufort has never been written on that paper. I 

 confess I can see no alternative but to suppose, either that the paper 

 containing those minutes was written from memory subsequently to 

 the date it bears — or that it is not a genuine document. 



" The Secretary has accused me of ' not having chosen to take the 

 slightest pains to inquire into the truth of an accusation,' and also 

 with having drawn the ' sweeping conclusion that the whole of the 

 minutes are unworthy of the least confidence.' To the last of these 

 charges I can only say that I shall be obliged by his pointing out the 

 passage in which it occurs. To refute the first, I shall adduce an evi- 

 dence which the Secretary will be the last to dispute; — Dr. Roget has 



* See our last Number, p. 446. — Edit. 



himself 



