155 



furtherance of this benevolent plan, and I confidently hope that the 

 funds which are necessary to complete this undertaking will not be 

 found wanting. 



The name of nearly every distinguished foreigner who has been 

 lost to science during the last year has appeared upon the Foreign 

 List of the Royal Society, and I cannot help considering it as a cir- 

 cumstance which does honour to the Royal Society, that it should 

 thus have associated with it whoever is most eminent in the great 

 aristocracy of European science. It is my wish, Gentlemen, and I 

 feel assured that it is yours also, that the Royal Society should em- 

 brace the name of every distinguished man of science in the British 

 dominions. At the last Anniversary it was my pleasing duty to pre- 

 sent the Copley Medal to Professor Airy, — a name which would do 

 honour to any Society, but which does not yet appear in the list of 

 our Members : and I lament that I am not allowed to commemorate 

 the name of that very distinguished philosopher, Sir John Leslie, 

 upon this occasion in the obituary of the Royal Society. I look for- 

 ward with hope, Gentlemen, to the time when the Royal Society 

 shall be so circumstanced as to be free from such a reproach, or 

 rather from such a misfortune. 



Report of the Council to the Anniversary Meeting on St. Andrew's 



Day, 1832. 



The Council of the Royal Society have, during the past year, used 

 their most earnest endeavours to render the Library as effective for the 

 purposes of science, as the means at their disposal would enable them. 

 They have been desirous, in particular, to make it as complete as pos- 

 sible in all those departments of science, which it is more especially 

 the object of the Royal Society to cultivate and to advance. They 

 have accordingly purchased, with the advice of the Library Committee, 

 such books as were more immediately required for these purposes, at 

 an expense of about £1600. It was evident, however, that the mere 

 possession of these books by the Society would be of little avail to 

 those who wished to use them, until they were arranged and cata- 

 logued according to some uniform and well-digested method. A 

 Committee was therefore appointed to consider of the best plan of 

 effecting this desirable object ; and to suggest measures for ob- 

 taining a correct catalogue of the library, arranged under such 

 specific heads as were best calculated to assist the inquiries of all 

 those who might resort to it for information. Various plans for this 

 purpose were proposed and discussed : and it was finally determined 

 that in order to insure uniformity of execution, the whole labour of 

 compiling the new classed Catalogue, and of conducting it through 

 the press, should be confided, though still under the superintendence 

 of the Committee, to one person only ; provided a proper person 

 could be found who was fully competent to so arduous a task, and 

 also willing to undertake it. The Council have accordingly engaged 

 Mr. Panizzi, of the British Museum, a gentleman of great literary 

 attainments, and conversant with that kind of labour, to undertake 



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