Edinburg'h Observatory. 453 



placed at the head of the British Association. They had been 

 received here in the most handsome manner. He was not dis, 

 posed to make any invidious comparisons with the former meet- 

 ings of the Association ; but he might be allowed to say, that 

 the meeting at Edinburgh was fully equal to any which had 

 preceded it. As a Scotsman, he felt an interest in any thing 

 relating to Scotland or its capital ; but from the present moment, 

 and after the honour now conferred on him, he would feel that 

 a special tie connected him with the city of Edinburgh, in the 

 prosperity of which he would always take a deep and lively in- 

 terest, and be at all times ready to promote it. Sir Thomas 

 Brisbane then acknowledged the honour conferred upon the 

 Members of the Association, and the gentlemen retired. 



EDINBURGH OBSERVATORY. 



To the Editor oftlie Edinburgh Philosophical Journal. 

 Sir, 



Knowing that an account of the proceedings of the British As- 

 sociation while assembled at Edinburgh, is to appear in your Jour- 

 nal, and that some remarks made in one of the meetings by Dr 

 Robinson on the Edinburgh Observatory will probably have a 

 place in that account, I beg leave to say a few words in reply to 

 the observations of the learned Astronomer of Armagh ; and I do 

 this, not from a wish to enter into controversy, but in compliance 

 with the recommendation of sonre friends who have for many years 

 taken a warm interest in the establishment of the Eklinburgh Ob- 

 servatory. 



The whole of Dr Robinson's objections apply to the position in 

 which the Observatory is placed. Now, it is well known to every 

 person in Edinburgh, that it was utterly impossible to raLse funds by 

 private subscription for erecting an observatory in any other posi- 

 tion than that on which it now stands. The people in Edinburgh, 

 with a wish to improve science, have also a desire to adorn their 

 city with elegant structures. Those who erected the Observatory 

 judiciously availed themselves of this twofold stimulus, and direct- 

 ed it to a purpose creditable to Scotland, and beneficial to the whole 

 world. Dr Robinson's objections express merely his own opinion. 

 The Observatory has not yet been actively employed : it is only a 



