253 



the assistance of observations made at the same instant of time, and 

 on the same system as our own. I have the satisfaction to state, 

 that these observatories exceed forty in number. 



While these researches are being made by our own and other states, 

 private enterprise is not idle. Mr. Enderby, to whom geography 

 is already indebted, has sent out a vessel for the purposes of discovery 

 in the Antarctic seas, with the object of approaching as near as may 

 be to the Southern pole. His ship is navigated by Mr. Mapleton, 

 an officer who had been selected by Her Majesty's Government to 

 take a part in Captain Ross's expedition ; but he had not returned 

 to England before that expedition had sailed. We may well hope 

 that he will merit this double confidence, and that he will, if his life 

 be spared, add another wreath to the laurels of England, won by a 

 Parry and a Ross, a Cooke and a Vancouver. 



You are aware. Gentlemen, that previously to the departure of the 

 late expedition, the Council of the Royal Society was requested by the 

 government to draw up a statement of the most desirable objects in 

 science to which the attention of the officers employed might be 

 directed. With this request, as you might also know, the Council 

 immediately complied ; and in the execution of the duty thus de- 

 volved on us, the assistance of the Scientific Committees was our 

 principal means of success. Since that time it has occurred to us, 

 that the same recommendations, in rather a different shape, might 

 be of great use to other scientific travellers. We have accordingly 

 taken considerable pains in perfecting these suggestions, which we 

 have caused to be printed for the public in general. We have 

 already furnished copies to the Commander of the Expedition to the 

 Niger, and I hope that, in addition to his higher objects, he may be 

 enabled to promote our acquaintance ^vith the details of the geo- 

 graphy and natural history of those imperfectly known parts of the 

 globe, 



I have the satisfaction to inform you, that by desire of the Council 

 Mr. Shuckard has completed a Catalogue of the valuable manuscript 

 letters in our library, among which are many from Ray, Willoughby, 

 Newton, Boyle, Hook, and other eminent men, which we trust may 

 serve as a useful aid to those Fellows who may wish to consult do- 

 cuments of so much interest and value. 



You will also be glad to know that Mr, Halliwell, one of our 

 Fellows, has undertaken and executed the task of making a cata- 

 logue of the miscellaneous manuscripts in our library ; a labour for 

 which I am sure you will feel much indebted to the author. In this 

 collection the Society possesses one most valuable manuscript, the 

 Principia in the hand-writing of the immortal Newton. 



The Royal Society, Gentlemen, was founded for the advancement 

 of natural knowledge, not for any purposes of private advantage or 

 vain glory. It must, therefore, always hail the foundation and 

 prosperity of new bodies of scientific men, brought together by the 

 same object in particular branches of science, either in the abstract, 

 or connected with important arts and manufactures. It cannot but 

 rejoice, thereforCj at the continued prosperity of the British Associ- 



