The names of the gentlemen composing this Committee were:-- Dr.Wollaston, Mr.Herschel, Dr.Young, Mr.Babbage, Mr.Davies Gilbert, Captain Beaufort, Mr.South, Captain Kater.
The importance of the various improvements suggested was different in the eyes of different members.

The idea of rendering the Society so select as to make it an object of ambition to men of science to be elected into it, was by no means new, as the following extract from the Minutes of the Council will prove:-- "MINUTES OF COUNCIL.

August 27, 1674 Present, Sir W.Petty, Vice-President, Sir John Lowther, Sir John Cutler, Sir Christopher Wren, Mr.Oldenburgh, Sir Paul Neile.
"It was considered by this Council, that to make the Society prosper, good experiments must be in the first place provided to make the weekly meetings considerable, and that the expenses for making these experiments must be secured by legal subscriptions for paying the contributors; which done, the Council might then with confidence proceed to the EJECTION OF USELESS FELLOWS." The reformers of modern times were less energetic in the measures they recommended.

Dr.Wollaston and some others thought the limitation of the numbers of the Society to be the most essential point, and 400 was suggested as a proper number to be recommended, in case a limitation should be ultimately resolved upon.

I confess, such a limit did not appear to me to bring great advantages, especially when I reflected how long a time must have elapsed before the 714 members of the Society could be reduced by death to that number.