ly,
that the discoveries or experiments rewarded, must be completed and made
known to the Royal Society, within the YEAR PRECEDING THE DAY of the
award.

Perhaps it might have been a proper mark of respect to this
communication, to have convened a special general meeting of the
Society, to have made known to the whole body the munificent endowment
of their Patron: and when his approbation of the laws which were to
govern the distribution of these medals had been intimated to the
Council, such a course would have been in complete accordance with the
wish expressed in Mr. Peel's letter, "TO EXCITE COMPETITION AMONGST MEN
OF SCIENCE" by making them generally known.

Let us now examine the first award of these medals: it is recorded in
the following words:--

November 16, 1826.

ONE of the medals of His Majesty's donation for the present year was
awarded to John Dalton, Esq. President of the Philosophical and Literary
Society, Manchester, for his development of the Atomic Theory, and his
other important labours and discoveries in physical science.

The other medal for the present year was awarded to James Ivory,
Esq. for his paper on Astronomical Refractions, published in the
Philosophical Transactions for the year 1823, and his other valuable
papers on mathematical subjects.

The Copley medal was awarded to James South, Esq. for his observations
of double stars, and his paper on the discordances between the sun's
observed and computed right ascensions, published in the Transactions.

It is difficult to believe that the same Council, which, in January,
formed the laws for the distribution of these medals, should meet
together in November, and in direct violation of these laws, award them
to two philosophers, one of whom had made, and fully established, his
great discovery almost twenty years before; and the other of whom (to
stultify themselves still more effectually) they expressly rewarded for
a paper made known to them three years before.

Were the rules for the award of these medals read previous to their
decision? Or were the obedient Council only used to register the edict
of their President? Or were they mocked, as they have been in other
instances, with the semblance of a free discussion?

Has it never occurred to gentlemen who have been thus situated, that
although they have in truth had no part in the decision, yet the Society
and the public will justly attribute a portion of the merit or demerit
of th