Tho society having presented an address to the king (Charles II.) on his restoration, his majesty expressed much satisfaction that the institution had originated in his reign, and promised to support it with his influence. And in 1662, by the concurrence, it is said, of Lord Clarendon, the chancellor, Sir Geoffry Palmer, the attorney general, and Sir Heneago Finch, the solicitor-general, he granted a charter, by which the members were incorporated into a society con sisting of a president, council, and fellows, under the name of the Royal Society. In this they were declared capable of holding lauds, tenements, &e. in perpetuity or otherwise, and of suing or defending in any court of law; a coat of arms was given them, and they were allowed to have a common seal for their use. William Viscount Brouncker was appointed president, and twenty-one persons were appointed by name to form a council. It was further regulated that the president should be elected annually on St. Andrew's day, and that ten of the council should, at the same time, he replaced by ten other persons chosen from among the fellows. (Birch, ' History of tho Royal Society,' vol. i.; Weld, Hist. of Royal Soc.' vol. i.) This charter being found not sufficiently explicit, in the following year another was obtained, in which the president and fellows are desig nated the president of the council and the fellows of the Royal Society of London for promoting natural knowledge ; and in which, after declaring that tho society might hold lands, &c., there is added " Statute, de alienation ire maws triertuam non obstante." (Birch, at sup.) Between 1661 and 1664, tho king made several visits to the society, and on those occasions experiments were exhibited, for the preparation of which committees of the members were appointed. In 1663 his majesty bestowed a mace on the society, and in 1664 lie signed himself, in the Charter-book, its founder ; at the same time the duke of York (afterwards James IL) signed himself a fellow-.
The Royal Society of London may now be said to have been com pletely formed, and it must be considered as the oldest of its kind in Europe, if we except the Academy of the Lyncei at Rome. The Academie Franchise, which, in 1635, established by Richelieu, had for its object only the improvement of the French language ; and though, in 1657, a number of learned men, among whom were Descartes, Gassendi, and Roberval, were accustomed to assemble at the apartments of Pere Mersonne in Paris, for the purpose of making philosophical experiments, and of reading the solutions of such mathematical problems as, according to the general practice of that age, had been proposed to them, yet it was not till 1666 that Louis XIV., at the suggestion of M. Colbert, founded what was then called the Royal Academy of Sciences for purposes similar to those which engaged the attention of the Royal Society. To the latter therefore belongs the honour of having preceded the former in time, and probably that of having in some ,measurc led to its formation. It must also be considered as having been the parent of the numerous scientific institutions which have since been formed in the British Isles as well as on the continent.
From the time of the charter being granted, the business of the society assumed more importance, and in 1664 Mr. Hooke was appointed curator, with a salary of SO/. per annum. The west gallery of Gresham College was appointed as a repository for the instruments which were under his charge, and for a museum of natural curiosities which had been given by Mr. Colwal, one of the members. Sir John Cutler also settled on Mr. Hooke 50/. per annum, in consideration of his delivering a course of lectures on the History of Nature and Art, under the regulation of the society; and the latter, in the same year, formed itself into seven committees for the purpose of considering the different subjects of which it was cognizant. These were mechanics,
astronomy and optics, anatomy, chemistry, agriculture, the history of trade, natural phenomena ; and there was, besides, a committee to manage the correspondence. The Royal Society early received many tokens of approbation from foreign nations, as well as from the nobility and the learned in this country. It corresponded frequently with the scientific men in France, and it was invited by Prince Leopold, the brother of the grand-duke of Tuscany, to keep up a mutual communication with the philosophers of Florence. The Germans published in their books favourable testimonials of its labours, and foreigners of distinction often attended its weekly meetings.
The first portion, or number, of the Philosophical Transactions,' as the work which the society published was designated, appeared out Monday, March 6, 1665. It contained sixteen quarto pages, with an introduction by the secretary of the society, Mr. Oldenburg, who wag conaiclered as the editor ; and it was intended that one such number should be published on the first Monday of every month. After the fifth number came out (June, 1665), the public meetings of the members were discontinued on account of the plague which then raged ; but it appears from a letter written by Mr. Boyle, at Oxford, to Oldenburg, who remained in London, that several of the members were then in the former city, and that they met and made experi ments at his lodgings. From these experiments and the communica tions made by some of the members, there were formed three more numbers of the Tmnsaction.s ; ' these were published at Oxford ; but the ninth and all the succeeding numbers came out in London. The title of the work was changed in 1679 to that of Philosophical Collections,' when Dr. Hooke became the editor ; but the former title was restored in January, 1633, with No. 143, which was published by Dr. Plot, who was then the secretary.
Tho council met again in Gresham College, in February, 1606, but the public meetings of the society did not take place till June in that year. In the same year the great fire, which laid nearly all London in ashes, having compelled the authorities of the city to take possession of the rooms hitherto occupied by the society, the latter gratefully accepted the offer of apartments in Arundel House, and it met there for the first tium in January, 1667. The munificent owner of the mansion, Mr. Henry Howard of Norfolk (afterwards earl marshal of Eneland)• at the same time presented the society with the library which lied been purchased by his grandfather, Thomas, earl of Anindel, and which had formerly belonged to Matthew Corvinus, king of Hun gary. This valuable library, consisting of several thousand printed volumes and numerous manuscripts, thus became the property of the society, which immediately took measures to put it under the care of its own officers, and it has been subsequently greatly increased by donation-1 and purchases. Being probably anxious to trespass as little &A possible on the hospitality of the noble family to whom the mansion belonged, the society proposed (November, 1667) to raise, by subscrip tion among its members, money to build a college for itself ; and by May in the following year 1000/. were subscribed. Mr. Howard at the same time generously promised to give the ground for the purpose. The seine gentleman also offered a design for the building, and both Dr. Christopher Wren and Mr. Hooke gave plans ; but it does not appear that the project was carried any further. In October, 1074, at the invitation of the Creaham professors, the society returned to its former apartments in that college, which haul now the name of the Royal Exchange. The west gallery was cleared out for the society as a repository, and the long gallery as a library for the reception of the books, which hail till then remained at Arundel House.