casions
apparently neglected, it may be here the proper place to mention,
since it is reasonable to suppose that attention to them is within the
province of its Secretaries.

The first to which I shall allude is the singular circumstances
attending the fact of the Royal Society having printed a volume
of Astronomical Observations which were made at the Observatory of
Paramatta (New South Wales), bearing the title of "The Third Part of the
Philosophical Transactions for the Year 1829."

Now this Observatory was founded at the private expense of a British
officer; the instruments were paid for out of his purse; two observers
were brought from Europe, to be employed in making use of those
instruments, at salaries defrayed by him. A considerable portion of
the observations so printed were made by these astronomers during their
employment in his service, and some of them are personally his own. Yet
has the Royal Society, in adopting them as part of its Transactions,
omitted all mention, either in their title-page, preface, or in any
part of the volume, of the FACT that the world owed these valuable
observations to the enlightened munificence of Lieutenant-General Sir
Thomas Brisbane; whose ardent zeal in the pursuit of science induced him
to found, at his own private expense, an establishment which it has
been creditable to the British Government to continue as a national
institution. Had any kindred feelings existed in the Council, instead
of endeavouring to shift the responsibility, they would have hastened to
rectify an omission, less unjust to the individual than it was injurious
to English science.

Another topic, which concerns most vitally the character and integrity
of the Royal Society, I hardly know how to approach. It has been
publicly stated that confidence cannot be placed in the written minutes
of the Society; and an instance has been adduced, in which an entry
has been asserted to have been made, which could not have been the true
statement of what actually passed at the Council.

The facts on which the specific instance rests are not difficult to
verify by members of the Royal Society. I have examined them, and shall
state them before I enter on the reasoning which may be founded upon
them. In the minutes of the Council, 26th November, 1829, we find--

"Resolved, that the following gentlemen be recommended to be put upon
the Council for the ensuing year." [Here follows a list of persons,
amongst whom th