| [When this hasty adjudication
was thus put a... 390 |
[Jan. 30th, 2010|02:29 am] |
[When this hasty adjudication
was thus put a stop to, one of the members of the Council
inquired, whether, as a Copley medal must by the will he annually
given, some other person might not be found deserving of it To
which the Secretary replied, "We do not intend to give any this
year All further discussion was thus silenced
Perhaps, also, as the Council are on some occasions apt to be
oblivious, it might be convenient that the President should read,
previously to the award of any medals or to the decision of any
other important subjects, the statutes relating to them He
might perhaps propitiate their attention to them, by stating, HOW
MUCH IT IMPORTETH TO THE CONSISTENCY OF THE COUNCIL TO BE
ACQUAINTED WITH THE LAWS ON WHICH THEY ARE ABOUT TO DECIDE
If those who have been conversant with the internal management of
the Council, would communicate their information, something
curious might perhaps be learned respecting a few of these
medals Concerning those of which I have had good means of
information, I shall merely state-- of three of them--that
whatever may have been the official reasons for their award, I
had ample reasons to convince me of the following being the true
causes:--
First-A medal was given to A, at a peculiarly inappropriate
time--BECAUSE HE HAD NOT HAD ONE BEFORE-Subsequently a medal was given to B, in order TO DESTROY
THE IMPRESSION WHICH THE AWARD OF THE MEDAL TO A HAD MADE ON THE
PUBLIC THE PRECEDING YEAR-A medal was given to C, "BECAUSE WE THINK HE HAS BEEN ILL
USED
I will now enter on an examination of one of their awards, which
was peculiarly injudiciousI allude to that concerning the mode
of rendering platina malleable Respecting, as I did, the
illustrious philosopher who invented the art, and who has left
many other claims to the gratitude of mankind, I esteem it no
disrespect to his memory to place that subject in its proper
light
An invention in science or in art, may justly be considered as
possessing the rights of property in the highest degree The
lands we inherit from our fathers, were cultivated ere they were
born, and yielded produce before they were cultivated The
products of genius are the actual creations of the individual |
|
|
