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Candidates. In saying this I hope it will be understood that I do not 

 wish in the least to interfere with the free exercise of the rights 

 of the Fellows. The Council would have no right to complain, be- 

 cause every Candidate selected by them w^as not elected, and still 

 less because some were to be elected whom they had not named ; 

 for I need scarcely repeat, that the Fellows may elect all the Can- 

 didates before them, or none of them. The latter alternative would 

 however convey an expression of opinion against both the claims of 

 the Candidates and the justice of the Council's selection neither 

 complimentary nor just. I therefore really think that the Council 

 would be hardly treated, if at least the greater part of the selected 

 Candidates were not elected. 



It is rather a singular circumstance, that, since our selection was 

 made, one of the gentlemen whom we had chosen, Mr. Syme, 

 should have withdrawn his name. The stringency of our rules has 

 afforded the Council no means of supplying his place. The possi- 

 bility of occurrence of such a case had not arisen in the minds of the 

 former Council, when the new rules were framed, but it may perhaps 

 be considered next year whether it ought to be provided against, or 

 whether it is likely to occur so seldom as not to require any special 

 provision. 



Many of you are probably cognizant of the Winteringham be- 

 quest, by which an annual sum of money was left to be invested in 

 the purchase of a silver cup as a prize for a scientific essay. To the 

 good intention of the testator I am bound to express our obligation. 

 The conditions of the bequest are however so complicated and 

 troublesome, that it appears hardly possible to comply with them ; 

 and it is besides extremely problematical whether the prize would 

 really obtain essays worthy of it. In that case it is obvious that no 

 benefit would be conferred on science, while the Royal Society 

 would find itself placed in what has been called a false position. 

 I have therefore thought it best, in agreement with the opinion of 

 your Council, and of other Fellows whom I have also consulted, to 

 do nothing in the matter in this the last year of my presiding over 

 you, leaving the question to be fully and maturely decided by my suc- 

 cessor and the Council, vvith whom he will have to deliberate. 



With politics, in their ordinary sense, we as a Scientific So- 

 ciety have nothing to do, except as far as public events may 

 tend to favour or discourage those studies, for the promotion of 

 which the Royal Society was established. I cannot but fear. Gen- 

 tlemen, that the promotion of scientific progress will be retarded 

 by the disorder that at present exists on the Continent, and 

 by the degree in which men's minds are engaged in state affairs. 

 It is creditable, I think, to foreign governments under such cir- 

 cumstances, that the combined prosecution of magnetical inquiries 

 is still continued. This combined inquiry is however soon coming 

 to an end, but I hope that the ingenious self-registering instrument 

 invented by our colleague Mr. Brooke, and now most successfully 

 employed in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, may find its way 

 into other national establishments, and by that means enable other 



