peal. There are, however, advantages in it
which may, in some cases, render it better than a public discussion at
the anniversary. When the cause of complaint is a system rather than any
one great grievance, it may be necessary to enter more into detail than
a speech will permit; also the printed statement and arguments will
probably come under the consideration of a larger number of the members.
Another and a considerable benefit is, that there is much less danger
of any expression of temper interrupting or injuring the arguments
employed.

There were other points suggested, but I shall subjoin the Report of the
Committee:--

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO CONSIDER THE BEST MEANS OF LIMITING
THE MEMBERS ADMITTED INTO THE ROYAL SOCIETY, AS WELL AS TO MAKE SUCH
SUGGESTIONS ON THAT SUBJECT AS MAY SEEM TO THEM CONDUCIVE TO THE WELFARE
OF THE SOCIETY.

Your Committee having maturely considered the resolution of the Council
under which they have been appointed; and having satisfied themselves
that the progressive increase of the Society has been in a much higher
ratio than the progressive increase of population, or the general growth
of knowledge, or the extension of those sciences which it has been
the great object of the Society to promote, they have agreed to the
following Report:--

Your Committee assume as indisputable propositions, that the utility
of the Society is in direct proportion to its respectability. That
its respectability can only be secured by its comprising men of high
philosophical eminence; and that the obvious means of associating
persons of this eminence will be the public conviction, that to belong
to the Society is an honour. Your Committee, therefore, think themselves
fully borne out in the conclusion, that it would be expedient to limit
the Society to such a number as should be a fair representation of the
talent of the country; the consequence of which will be, that every
vacancy would become an object of competition among persons of
acknowledged merit.

From the returns which have been laid on your table, of the Fellows who
have contributed papers, and from the best estimate they can make of the
persons without doors who are engaged in the active pursuit of science,
your Committee feel justified in recommending that those limits should
be fixed at four hundred, exclusive of foreign members, and of such
royal personages as it may be thought proper to admit.

As many years must elapse