Memoir of the late Francis Baily, Esq., F.R.S.f S^c. 73 



highest offices of our institulion, and was never off the Coun- 

 cil, nor was there any Committee on which he did not sit as 

 one of its most active and efficient members. 



With the exception of the Meeting of May 12, 1836, when 

 he was in Scotland observing the annular eclipse, he was never 

 absent from any Council, or from any Ordinary, General, 

 or Committee Meeting, until finally prevented by illness. Nor 

 during the whole period of the Society's existence was there 

 any matter in which its interests were concerned in which he 

 was not a mover, and, indeed, the principal mover and ope- 

 rator. Nor was this care of our interests and respectability 

 confined to formal business or to matters of internal manage- 

 ment. On every external occasion which offered he bore 

 those interests in mind. He watched and seized the precise 

 opportunity to procure for us from Government the commo- 

 dious apartments we occupy. He obtained for us the respected 

 and dignified position of Joint- Visitors of the Royal Obser- 

 vatory ; he let no opportunity pass of enriching our library 

 with attested copies of the most valuable astronomical docu- 

 ments, such as ' Flamsteed's Letters' and ' Halley's Recorded 

 Observations.' He husbanded and nursed our finances with 

 the utmost judgement and oeconomy, thereby rendering us rich 

 and independent. He printed at his own cost the thirteenth 

 volume of our * Transactions,' and procured to be defrayed by 

 Government the expense of the seventh, and by subscription 

 among the members, without entrenching on the funds of the 

 Society, that of the computation and printing of our Catalogue. 

 He prepared all our Annual Reports, and his addresses from 

 the chair will always be read with pleasure and instruction. 

 He also prepared all Committees' Reports, and translated for 

 reading at our meetings numerous notices and communications 

 in the German language: among others the memoir relating 

 to the Berlin charts. In fine, he superintended everything in 

 every department. But it was the manner and delicate tact 

 of this superintendence which gave it its value and rendered 

 it efficient. In respect of this point I may, perhaps, be per- 

 mitted to use the expressions of a distinguished member of 

 our body, to whom we owe many and great obligations, and 

 who has witnessed the working of its machinery from the be- 

 ginning, an advantage of which for some years I have myself 

 been deprived by non-residence in London and absence from 

 England. " Of his management of our Society," says Mr. 

 Sheepshanks, " it is difficult to speak so as to convey a correct 

 idea. No assumption, no interference with other people, no 

 martinet spirit (which seems almost natural to all good busi- 

 ness men), but everything carried on smoothly and correctly, 



