It is a fact honourable to the society that they do not confine their
honours exclusively to contributors to their own 'Transactions.' At
their late anniversary, they gave their gold medal to the Rev. J.H.
Jellett, for his labours in treating the noblest mathematical subjects
in a way to make them intelligible to students. As the president said
in his address: 'Descending from the more desirable position of an
inventor to the humbler but more useful one of enabling others to
place themselves on a level with himself, by compiling for their use
an excellent elementary treatise, he has conferred on his species a
benefit of the highest order,' in a work which otherwise was 'as
little likely to be given to the world as it was desirable that it
should be so.'
It is time to close; but I must first clear off a few miscellaneous
items. The Admiralty Report concerning the Arctic expeditions is
canvassed pretty freely, and with significant hints that justice has
not been rendered in its conclusions. We can only hope that really
efficient commanders will be sent out with the expedition that is to
be despatched in April or May next; if not, it will be abortive, as
the others have been, and we shall never know what has become of
Franklin.
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