Page:Reflections on the decline of science in England - Babbage - 1830.pdf/215

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THE ROYAL SOCIETY.
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a new fund, called the donation fund, was established, and through the liberality of Dr. Wollaston and Mr. Davies Gilbert, it was endowed by them with the respective sums of 2,000l. and 1,000l. 3 per cents; no notice of such fact appears in our Transactions for 1829. Other gentlemen have contributed; and if it is desirable to possess such a fund, it is surely of importance to inform the non-attending, which is by far the largest part of the Society, that it exists; and that we are grateful to those by whom it has been founded and augmented. Neither did the Philosophical Transactions inform our absent members, that they could purchase the President's Discourses at the trade-price.

The list of the Officers, Council, and Members of the Royal Society is printed annually; yet, who ever saw it bound up with the Philosophical Transactions, to which it is intended to be attached? I never met with a single copy of that work so completed, not even the one in our own library. It is extremely desirable that the Society should know the names of their Council: and whilst it would in some measure contribute

    award of those medals thus communicated, is rather creditable to them, and proves that they had a becoming feeling respecting their former errors.