200 CONGKESSIONAL PEOCEEDINGS. 



the Cape of Good Hope, already made illustrious l)y the labors of Sir 

 John Herschel. 



Among the munificent patrons of science, and particularly of prac- 

 tical astronom3% adding a brighter luster than that of the diamond or 

 the ruby to the imperial crown, is the present Emperor of all the 

 Russias. There was, during the reign of his predecessor, a small 

 observatory at St. Petersburg, at which the eminent German astrono- 

 mer Schubert, author of a profoundly learned and also of the best 

 popular system of astronomj^ extant, presided. 



But no longer since than the 7th of August last the inauguration 

 took place of the new observatory of Pulkowa, near St. Petersburg, 

 a spot selected by the Emperor Nicholas himself for the establishment 

 founded under his auspices, and constituting perhaps the most perfect 

 and best appointed institution of this nature extant in the world. In 

 November last an account of this event, and a long and detailed 

 description of the observatory itself, was communicated by Mr. Arago 

 to the National Institute of France; and the reporter of this discourse 

 of Mr. Arago, in one of the periodical journals of Paris, observes that 

 its details would be read with interest and give an idea of the exer- 

 tions made in that land of serfs for the progress of the sciences. "We 

 acknowledge," adds the journalist, "that the reading of this article 

 would have been very little flattering to our national self-love if the 

 honorable Mr. Arago had not immediately informed us that, by the 

 accomplished labors of Mr. Gambay, the observatory of Paris has no 

 reason to shrink from a comparison with this new model of observa- 

 tories at Pulkowa." 



The committee of the House can not but consider these circumstances 

 as indicating, in an eminent degree, that intense and ardent thirst for 

 the increase and diffusion of knowledge which, among all the nations 

 of Christendom, however politically governed, forms one of the most 

 remarkable characteristics of the age in which we live. Here is the 

 sovereign of the mightiest empire and the most absolute government 

 upon earth, ruling over a land of serfs, gathering a radiance of glorj'^ 

 around his throne by founding and endowing the most costly and most 

 complete establishment for astronomical observation on the face of the 

 earth. This is undertaken and accomplished under hyperborean 

 skies — in the region so proximate to the pole that it offers to the 

 inspection of the human eye only a scanty portion of the northern 

 hemisphere, with an atmosphere so chilled with cold, veiled with clouds, 

 and obscured with vapors that it yields scarcely sixty days in the 

 year when observation of the heavenly bodies is practicable. And this 

 event is honorably noticed in the National Institute of France, one of 

 the most learned and talented assemblies of men upon the globe — 

 noticed as an occurrence in the annals of science — noticed for honor 

 and for emulation. The journalist of a free country, applauding the 



