ON SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS (DUBLIN).
XV the Museum of Irish Industry were, in reality, the successors of the superan¬ nuated professors of the Royal Dublin Society.
The fact of those new pro¬ fessors being appointed " Lecturers to the Museum of Irish Industry " clearly shows that the Government intended at that time to sever, as occasion offered, all connection between the educational staff and the Royal Dublin Society.
On the receipt of the Minute of 11th of April 1854, the Council of the Royal Dublin Societv appointed a sub-committee (24th April 1854) to prepare a report to the Society, recommending a deputation to be appointed to represent to the Lord Lieutenant the importance of not depriving the Society of its character as an institution for the promotion of industrial education and the practical sciences and arts.
This report was presented to the Society at a meeting held 27th April 1854 ; it protested against the existence of the Museum of Irish Industry.
c: The Council/5 it said, "
are fully sensible that the con-u tinuance of two such institutions is unnecessary and inexpedient, and they " submit that it would be more consistent with a just regard to the rights " and position of this Society, and more conducive to public utility, that the " objects of the two institutions should be carried out by the Royal Dublin " Society."
The appointment of professors, by the Board of Trade, and the di¬ vision of their duties between the Royal Dublin Society and the Museum of Irish Industry were also strongly objected to.
It was considered that this divi¬ sion of duties would not be advantageous to either institution, on the ground that the duties of professors are not " confined to imparting instruction by lec-" tures alone, but by various other modes ; by practical experiments/by refer-u ences from members, and by reading papers at the public meetings."'
The deputation to the Lord Lieutenant to ask his Excellency's co-operation was appointed, and it was likewise referred to Council to prepare an answer to the Minute of the Board of Trade.
A special meeting of the Society was convened for'9th May 1854, to appoint a deputation to wait upon the Board of Trade in 2990.
Accordance with the desire of the President of that Board, then the Right Hon-E.
Cardwell.
At that meeting the answer to the Minute of the 11th of April 2992-was ordered to be inserted in the minutes.
In this answer the Society claimed to have been from its institution, in 1739, educational, and protested against the professors being placed under the dirett responsibility of the Board of Trade alone, and to their duties being confined to lecturing.
At a meeting, held on the 29th of May, the deputation appointed to wait on Mr.
Cardwell, President of the Board of Trade, reported that there were two points upon which the Government would not recede, namely :—
1.
The maintenance of the Museum of Irish Industry as a separate 2957-Government institution; and, 2.
Their intention of not supporting a double staff of professors.
The Society had instructed the deputation to state that it w ould not recede on one point, namely, the entire abandonment of its educational staff.
Mr.
Cardwell proposed, as a compromise, that a committee be entrusted with the general arrangement of all lectures common to the two institutions; and also, of the provincial lectures, leaving to the Museum the organization of the regular course of industrial education which it was proposed to establish.t
This committee was to consist of eight members, four to be elected by the Royal Dublin Society, and four to be appointed by the Crown ; the latter four to be also members of the Royal Dublin Society, or if not already members to be admitted as such without ballot, on their appointment by the Crown.
The new professors appointed to the Museum of Irish Industry, and the two ,2193-transferred from the Royal Dublin Society, met under the presidence of the Director of the Musemn of Irish Industry, and drew up a provisional scheme of lectures.
This scheme embraced two distinct kinds of lectures : first, systematic 351?*
lectures, for which a fee was to be charged, which were to be delivered in the Museum of Irish Industry, and in regard to which alone the professors were under the direction of the Director of the Museum of Irish Industry; and, secondly, popular courses, one of which was to be delivered in the afternoon in the theatre of the Royal Dublin Society, and a second course in the evening in the theatre of the Museum of Irish Industry.
So far as regarded the popular courses the professors were governed by the joint Committee, each professor communicating independently respecting his own lectures with the Committee.
3532.
There seems to have been no obligation as to the number of systematic lectures 495.
b 4 which
