Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/50

Rh 38 R Y R Y dignitary of the court, and is always a member of the Govern- ment of the day, a peer, and a privy councillor. All matters connected with the horses and hounds of the sovereign are within his jurisdiction. The master of the buckhounds, who is also one of the ministry, ranks next to him, and it is his duty to attend the royal hunt and to head the procession of royal equipages on the racecourse at Ascot, where he presents himself on horseback in a Cn and gold uniform wearing the couples of a hound as the je of his office. The hereditary grand falconer 1 is also sub- ordinated to the master of the horse. But the practical manage- ment of the royal stables and stud in fact devolves on the chief or crown equerry, formerly called the gentleman of the horse, who is never in personal attendance on the sovereign, and whose appoint- ment is permanent. The clerk marshal lias the supervision of the accounts of the department before they are submitted to the Board of Green Cloth, ana is in waiting on the sovereign on state occasions only. Exclusive of the crown equerry there are seven regular equerries, besides extra and honorary equerries, one of whom is always in attendance on the sovereign and rides at the side of the royal carriage. They are always officers of the army, and each of them is "on duty" for about the same time as the lords and grooms in waiting. There are also three pages of honour in the master of the horse's department, who must not be confounded with the pages of various kinds who are in the department of the lord chamberlain. They are youths aged from twelve to sixteen, selected by the sovereign in person, to attend on her at state ceremonies, when two of them arrayed in an antique costume assist the groom of the robes in carrying the royal train. It remains to be said that to the three ancient departments of the royal household which we have already noticed two others have been added in comparatively recent times. The departments of the private secretary and the keeper of the privy purse to the sovereign, which are for the present combined, originated no longer ago than the earlier part of the current century. Very great doubts were at one time entertained as to whether such an office as that of private secretary to the sovereign could constitutionally exist, and 'the privy purse itself was unknown until after the passing of Burke's Act of 1782. As at present organized these branches of the royal household consist of the private secretary and keeper of the privy puree, two assistant private secretaries and keepers of the privy purse, and a secretary and two clerks of the privy purse. By the statute which settled the civil list at the beginning of the current reign (1 & 2 Viet c. 2) the privy purse was fixed at 60,000 a year, and the salaries, allowances, anS other expenses of the royal house- hold were fixed at 303,760 a year. (F. DR.) ROYAL SOCIETY, THE, or, more fully, The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is an association of men interested in the advancement of mathematical and physical science. It is the oldest scien- tific society in Great Britain, and one of the oldest in Europe. The Royal Society is usually considered to have been founded in the year 1660, but a nucleus had in fact been in existence for some years before that date. Wallis informs us that as early as the year -1645 weekly meetings were held of "divers worthy persons, inquisitive into natural philosophy, and other parts of human learning, and particularly of what hath been called the New Philo- sophy or Experimental Philosophy" and there can be little doubt that this gathering of philosophers is identical with the " Invisible College " of which Boyle speaks in sundry letters written in 1646 and 1647. These weekly meet- ings, according to Wallis, were first suggested by Theodore Haak, "a German of the Palatinate then resident in London," and they were held sometimes in Dr Goddard's lodgings in Wood Street, sometimes at the Bull-Head Tavern in Cheapside, but more often at Gresham College. On November 28, 1660, the first journal book of the society was opened with a " memorandum," from which the following is an extract: "Memorandum that Novemb. 28. 1660, These persons following, according to the usuall custom of most of them, mett together at Gresham Colledge to heare Mr Wren's lecture, viz., The Lord Brouncker, Mr Boyle, Mr Bruce, Sir Robert Moray, Sir Paul Neile, Dr Wilkins, Dr Goddard, Dr Petty, Mr Ball, Mr Rooke, Mr Wren, Mr HilL And after the lecture was ended, they did, according to the usuall manner withdrawe for mutuall 1 The duke of St Albans. converse. Where amongst other matters that were dis- coursed of, something was offered about a designe of founding a Colledge for the promoting of Physico-Mathe- maticall Experimentall Learning." It was agreed at this meeting that the company should continue to assemble on Wednesdays at 3 o'clock; an admission fee of ten shillings with a subscription of one shilling a week was instituted; Dr Wilkins was appointed chairman ; and a list of forty-one persons judged likely and fit to join the design was drawn up. On the following Wednesday Sir Robert Moray brought word that the king (Charles II.) approved the design of the meetings ; a form of obligation was framed, and was signed by all the persons enumerated in the memorandum of November 28, and by seventy-three others. On December 12 another meeting was held at which fifty-five was fixed as the number of the society, persons of the degree of baron, fellows of the College of Physicians, and public professors of mathematics, physic, and natural philosophy of both universities being supernumeraries. Gresham College' was now appointed to be the regular meeting-place of the society. Sir Robert Moray was chosen president (March 6, 1661), and continued in that office until the incorporation of the society, when he was suc- ceeded by Lord Brouncker. In October 1661 the king offered to be entered one of the society, and next year the society was incorporated under the name of " The Royal Society," the charter of incorporation passing the great seal on the 15th July 1662, to be modified, however, by a second charter in the following year. The council of the Royal Society met for the first time on May 13, 1663, when resolutions were passed that debate concerning those to be admitted should be secret, and that fellows should pay Is. a week to defray expenses. At this early stage of the society's history one main part of their labours was the "correspondence" which was actively maintained with Continental philosophers, and it was from this that the Philosophical Transactions (a publication now of world-wide celebrity) took its rise. At first the Transactions was entirely the work of the secretary, except that it was ordered (March 1, 1664-5) " that the tract be licensed by the Council of the Society, being first reviewed by some of the members of the same." The first number, consisting of sixteen quarto pages, appeared on Monday 6th March 1664-5. In 1750 four hundred and ninety-six numbers or forty-six volumes had been published by the secretaries. After this date the work was issued under the superintendence of a committee, and the division into numbers disappeared. At present (1885) one hundred and seventy-five volumes have been completed. Another matter to which the society turned their atten- tion was the formation of a museum, the nucleus being "the collection of rarities formerly belonging to Mr Hubbard," which, by a resolution of council passed February 21, 1666, was purchased for the sum of 100. This museum, at one time the most famous in London, was presented to the trustees of the British Museum in 1781, upon the removal of the society to Somerset House. After the Great Fire of London in September 1666 the apartments of the Royal Society in Gresham College were required for the use of the city authorities, and the society were therefore invited by Henry Howard of Norfolk to meet in Arundel House. At the same time he presented them with the library purchased by his grandfather Thomas, earl of Arundel, and thus the foundation was laid of the magnificent collection of scientific works, pro- bably not far short of 45,000 volumes, which the society at the present time possesses. Of the Arundel MSS. the bulk was sold to the trustees of the British Museum in 1830 for the sum of 3559, the proceeds being devoted