378 Astronomical Society, 



authors to priority of discovery, so far at least as priority of public 

 communication can be regarded as evidence in questions of that na- 

 ture. The same arrangement offers the further advantage of relieving 

 the Council from all difficulty in the disposal of matter of merely tem- 

 porary interest ; such as notices of phenomena, ephemerides of the 

 smaller planets, comets, &c. which require speedy circulation, and do 

 not need to be formally enrolled in the Memoirs ; and it may occasion- 

 ally happen, that the matter of more regular communications may so 

 far be condensed into the monthly abstract, as to dispense with a 

 second publication in the Memoirs — to the material relief of the funds 

 of the Society. 



The same consideration of the advantages derived from the speedy 

 publication of communications read to the Society, has induced the 

 Council to adopt the principle of sending immediately to press all 

 papers which, on passing through the prescribed formalities, shall be 

 deemed of a nature for publication in their Memoirs j and although 

 objections have been considered to exist against the separate pub- 

 lication of each particular memoir, the division of their volumes into 

 smaller parts can be attended with no inconvenience. Acting on 

 this principle, the Council have directed the publication of Part I. 

 Vol. 3. of the Memoirs, including all papers (regarded by them as 

 suitable for printing in the body of the Memoirs) read during the 

 interval elapsed from the last publication. This Part is now, 

 accordingly, before the public, and furnishes satisfactory proofs of 

 the zeal, diligence, and talents, both of our Home Members and our 

 Associates. 



It is not merely, however, in communicating to the world the ob- 

 servations of their members, but also in causing observations to be 

 made, and in lending every assistance in their power to those meri- 

 torious and public-spirited individuals, who, actuated only by an 

 earnest desire to render available their leisure and talents in the 

 cause of science, are willing to undertake the task of regular obser- 

 vation, — that a Society like this can render service to science. The 

 munificent act of a private individual, has happily placed this par- 

 ticular line of utility more directly than heretofore in the power of 

 the Society ; and its members have not been slow in availing them- 

 selves of its advantages, and applying them to effective use. — Among 

 the great and lamented losses which the Society has sustained in the 

 course of the last year, is that of the late Colonel Mark Beaufoy ; the 

 latter days of whose existence we recollect with a melancholy plea- 

 sure to have been cheered and gratified by the highest mark of this 

 Society's approbation, in the award of their medal for his Astronomical 

 Observations. His son, Lieut. George Beaufoy, has, with the utmost 

 liberality, placed his deceased father's astronomical instruments in 

 the possession of this Society. They consist of 



One 4-feet Transit, by the late Mr. Cary, Strand. 



One Altitude and Azimuth Circle, by the same. 



One Clock, adjusted to mean Solar time. 



One Clock, adjusted to Sidereal time. 

 Your Council conceive, that the opportunity fortunately placed be- 

 fore 



