380 Astronomical Society. 



stars, alluded to in the last Report, and which appears to have met 

 the approbation of every astronomer. But the Council are happy to 

 state, that this disbursement has been followed by a corresponding 

 spirit of zeal and liberality on the part of several of the members, 

 who, by entering into a subscription, have enabled the Council to de- 

 fray nearly the whole expense of that useful and valuable work, with- 

 out intrenching on the ordinary funds of the Society. And it may be 

 mentioned, as a proof of the liberal spirit which animated those mem- 

 bers, that the sum of 320 1, was subscribed, within a few hours, towards 

 the expense of publishing the Catalogue above alluded to. 



The Council cannot too earnestly impress on the attention of the 

 members, the necessity of encouraging the sale of the Memoirs as 

 much as possible : since it is only by a quick return, arising from 

 such sale, that they can expect to continue the publication, from year 

 to year, without a serious diminution of the funds of the Society. 



Among the accessions to our home list of members, in the year 

 elapsed, the Council have to record, with all those sentiments of re- 

 spect which his illustrious rank so peculiarly inspires, the name of 

 His Royal Highness the Lord High Admiral : and they trust that this 

 accession, so honourable in itself, and so gratifying to the Society, 

 will be attended with the most beneficial results to the science which 

 this Society was formed to promote, and which is so intimately con- 

 nected in its practical application with the department over which 

 His Royal Highness presides. Our home list has been further in- 

 creased by the accession of fourteen new members, and our foreign, 

 by that of one associate. 



Among the losses sustained by death, the Society has to lament, in 

 addition to Colonel Beaufoy, that of its most illustrious associate 

 Laplace : and on our home lisl, of the Rev. Lewis Evans j His Grace 

 the Duke of Gordon j our amiable and excellent trustee, Mr. Daniel 

 Moore (whose loss will be felt far beyond the limits of this body by 

 many, as the privation of a benefactor, in whose ears the calls of dis- 

 tress never sounded in vain) ; Mr. W. M. Mosely j and Mr. J. Sanders. 



Mr. Mosely, in addition to a competent knowledge of various sci- 

 ences, had turned much of his attention, in the latter part of his life, 

 to astronomy. He possessed several valuable instruments, and is 

 said to have left behind him a series of observations of transits and 

 north polar distances, and some measures of double stars confirmatory 

 of their changes. 



Mr. Evans also possessed instruments of considerable merit, and 

 for several years employed himself as a skilful and successful ob- 

 server. 



It will not be expected that any sketch should here be attempted 

 of the labours of M. de Laplace. No history of his scientific life, of 

 the origin and development of his views, adequate to the occasion, 

 could be comprised in such limits as those of this Report : and the 

 general nature of the more important results of his researches is al- 

 ready so well known, and so incorporated with the intellectual hi- 

 story of the last half century, that it constitutes a portion of the know- 

 ledge of every well informed man. During the long period of fifty-five 



years, 



