P,oyal Astronomical Society. 



"with the repetition of the same name. A Herschel was the projector 

 of the science ; the same Herschel established it to the utmost extent 

 to which a most powerful intellect using the most powerful instru- 

 ments in the world could carry it ; another Herschel improved the 

 accuracy of the observations, increased their number, and fixed the 

 positions of many stars for an epoch sufficiently distant from the 

 former to give accurate measures of their motions ; and, finally, in- 

 troduced that method of determining the elements of their orbits 

 which is yet probably the best that exists. A Struve has filled 

 volumes with the records of the observations made with the magni- 

 ficent instruments at his command. Compared with these, the ad- 

 ditions made by others to the theory or to the observations appear 

 small, Yet it would be unjust to omit mention of the labours of 

 Savary on the theory, and of those of South, Dawes, Bessel, and 

 Madler on the observations. To these names we can now add that 

 of one whose labours place him in a higher position, the name of 

 Smyth. 



I may perhaps for a moment quit the scientific part of this notice 

 to remark that this science is in its origin and principal advances 

 essentially English, and that by far the greater part of the work 

 done upon it has been done by private and not by official observers. 

 The former class is one of whom our country has good reason to be 

 proud. 1 say advisedly that, since the time of Tycho, no country 

 has witnessed efforts directed with such force, such judgement, and 

 such perseverance, as those of Herschel and Groombridge in sidereal 

 observation, and those of Baily in astronomical literature and in ob- 

 servations of a different class. It has been the pride of our men of 

 business to show that in them at least the effect of the cares inci- 

 dental to their position has been not to degrade but to sharpen the 

 intellect ; not to render it insensible to everything but gain, but to 

 show that honourable gain is only a means to an end, and that that 

 end is the very highest cultivation of the mind. 



Although the instance before us is in some degree different, its 

 general character is the same. An officer, whose rank has been de- 

 rived, in the first instance, from the honourable profession of arm* ; 

 whose European reputation has been founded upon his services, 

 first as a volunteer and afterwards in official employment, in the 

 scientific and useful task of maritime survey ; employs the leisure 

 hours of his riper years upon the furtherance of the astronomy of 

 double stars, devotes to that object his fortune and his energies with 

 a perseverance scarcely inferior to those of the persons to whom I 

 have already alluded, and finally produces an extensive catalogue of 

 double stars possessing, as we believe, the highest claims to the fa- 

 vourable reception of the scientific world. I cannot forbear to add 

 that the results of this labour have been published in a form which 

 cannot fail to fix the attention and to direct the studies of many other 

 able men of the same class : but I add also that this circumstance 

 ought to have no influence, and has had no influence, in deciding 

 your Council on the award of this Medal. 



I might offer you my reasons, gentlemen, for believing that ob- 



