s instituted.

His Majesty desires to receive from the President and Council of
the Royal Society their opinion upon the subject generally of the
regulations which it may be convenient to establish with regard to the
appropriation of the medals; and I have, therefore, to request that
you will make the necessary communication to the Council of the Royal
Society, in order that His Majesty's wishes may be carried into effect.

I have the honour to be, &c. &c. (Signed) R. PEEL.

Nothing could be more important for the interests of science, than this
gracious manifestation of His Majesty's concern for its advancement. It
was hailed by all who were made acquainted with it, as the commencement
of a new era, and the energies which it might have awakened were
immense. The unfettered nature of the gift excited admiration, whilst
the confidence reposed in the Council was calculated to have insured
the wavering faith of any less-gifted body. Even those who, either from
knowing the MANAGEMENT of the Society, or from other grounds, doubted
the policy of establishing medals, saw much to admire in the tone and
spirit in which they were offered.

The Council immediately came to the resolution of gratefully accepting
them: and it appears that the President communicated that resolution, on
the 26th, to Mr. Peel, in a letter, which is found on the minutes of the
Council-book of the 26th of January.

At the same Council, the rules for the award of the Royal medals were
decided upon; they were as follow:--

26th January, 1826.

RESOLVED,

That it is the opinion of the Council, that the medals be awarded for
the most important discoveries or series of investigations, completed
and made known to the Royal Society in the year preceding the day of
their award.

That it is the opinion of the Council, that the presentation of the
medals should not be limited to British subjects. And they propose, if
it should be His Majesty's pleasure, that his effigy should form the
obverse of the medal.

That two medals from the same die should be struck upon each foundation;
one in gold, one in silver.

If these rules are not the wisest which might have been formed, yet
they are tolerably explicit; and it might have been imagined that even a
councillor of the Royal Society, prepared for office by the education
of a pleader, could not have mystified his brethren so completely, as
to have made them doubt on the point of time. The rules fixed precise