Anniversary Meeting. 



[Nov. 30, 



following : — The Government-Grant Committee, the Library Committee, 

 the Donation Committee, and the Scientific Belief Committee have all 

 been active in their several functions. The Catalogue of Scientific Papers 

 to the year 1863 is completed, and will long remain as a testimonial to 

 the judgment and care of those who have superintended and completed 

 it. So strong is the sense of the Council on its value (a value to which 

 I can personally testify), that they have determined to carry it on to 

 1873. 



Of the subjects which have been referred by the Government to the 

 Boy al. Society, and on w r hich the President and Council, assisted by Com- 

 mittees of the Society, have made Eeports, the first in importance is 

 undoubtedly the course and employment of the Expedition which is now 

 leaving our shores, for an almost complete circumnavigation of the 

 globe, and for a very extensive series of observations, bearing principally 

 upon natural history, but partly also on ocean-currents, ocean-depths, 

 and progressive geology. It is not too much to anticipate that the series 

 of suggestions offered by the Committee which has given its attention to 

 these subjects will long be studied by the promoters of future expedi- 

 tions as guides for their own conduct. — Next is to be mentioned the con- 

 sideration of an application, from the German Scientific Bodies, for the 

 establishment of a self-registering tide-gauge on the island of Heligoland, 

 to serve for the definition of a zero of elevation for the continent of 

 Europe with supposed greater accuracy than any that can be obtained on 

 the continental shores. The President and Council offer their tribute of 

 respect to the long-sighted view, and the breadth of the considerations, 

 which, as might be expected, have distinguished the enterprise desired by 

 their German brethren. At the same time they have felt it their duty 

 to indicate a point of tidal theory on which their opinions do not harmo- 

 nize with those that suggested the observations in question ; and they 

 have also alluded to the very great practical difficulties in carrying out 

 the proposed construction. In this state they have submitted the ques- 

 tion to the British Government. — It is known that an International 

 Commission has been sitting in Paris, for the purpose of establishing 

 with accuracy the length of the Metre, and for the distribution of accu- 

 rate copies ; and, with the concurrence of the British Government, your 

 Eoreign Secretary and the Warden of Standards have taken an active 

 part in the deliberations ; and your President would probably have joined 

 them if his official employments had permitted it. I think it imperative 

 on me to state that the British Government gave their assent only on the 

 express understanding that they could take no part in the Commission if 

 it displayed any propagandist intention. Speaking as the representative 

 of the body who had best considered this subject, namely the Standards' 

 Commission now dormant, I can say, as their unanimous opinion, that 

 they deprecate the slightest interference with national usages ; but they 



