318 Royal Astronomical Society. 



respondence with other observers at home. He also proposes to 

 observe an extensive catalogue of southern stars, and make various 

 astronomical and magnetical observations. His instruments are a 

 3-foot meridian circle, with a telescope of 52 lines aperture, made 

 by Pistor and Martins, of Berlin, under Professor Encke's direction ; 

 a 5-foot equatoreal, with clock-motion, by Fraunhofer ; clock, chro- 

 nometers, &c. Lieut. Gilliss expects to leave home in about six 

 months, and to be absent two or three years. 



At the close of the evening the chairman informed the meeting 

 that the Astronomer Royal had presented the models of Lord Rosse's 

 telescope and polishing machine to the Society. Thanks were re- 

 turned to the Astronomer Royal for his present. They are now in 

 the meeting-room for examination. 



Feb. 9, 1849 The Annual General Meeting of the Society, Sir 



John Frederick William Herschel, Bart., President, in the Chair. 



Before commencing the usual business of the meeting, the Presi- 

 dent rose and said : — 



Gentlemen, — Before the proper and formal business of this meet- 

 ing begins, I must call your attention to the bust which you have 

 seen in our entrance-hall ; — it is that of our late beloved and re- 

 spected president, Francis Baily, a name which will never be men- 

 tioned in this Society without calling up a lively recollection of all 

 that is excellent in public, and amiable in private, character. When 

 you trace, as you cannot but do, in that marble the faithful and. 

 charming reproduction of features we have so often seen in the place 

 I now occupy, animated with the pure love of science, and with deep 

 interest in the welfare of this Society, you will be surprised to learn 

 that it is the production of an artist by whom these features had 

 never been seen but in the faint reflection of an engraving from his 

 portrait, and in that painful memento which preserves the impress 

 of a form from which the spirit has departed. When I name the 

 eminent artist, however, who has wrought this triumph over time 

 and oblivion (our celebrated sculptor, Edward Hodges Baily), your 

 surprise will cease. It is an achievement familiar to his chisel. 



'J'he bust is presented to this Society by Miss Baily, the surviving 

 sister of our late president. She has judged riglitly in supposing 

 we shall value it. No possession we have will be more precious in 

 our eyes. Nowhere could a memorial of the kind be more appro- 

 priately placed than in the meeting-place of a public body with 

 which his name and his fame are so largely identified, and of which 

 he was so distinguished an ornament. We have now his picture 

 and his bust — both excellent. What art can do to keep his memory 

 fresh is done. It remains for us to show that his spirit is not ex- 

 tinct among us. 



I am sure you will enable me to respond as I ought to do to this 

 touching and munificent gift of Miss Baily, vvho has requested me 

 to be her spokesman on this occasion ; and as there can be but one 

 feeling on the subject, I shall call on the Astronomer Royal to em- 

 body that feeling in a motion of thanks. 



