1873.] President's Address. 61 



Le Vender has called that ' prodigious series of observations,' which may be 

 taken as the fundamental bases of the theory of the moon. For now all but 

 two hundred years have their efforts been devoted to increase and to preserve 

 these glorious records. And the practically beneficent result to all civilized 

 nations, and more especially to those much interested in navigation, have 

 been almost incalculable. 



I notice this point more prominently because I am thoroughly satisfied 

 from experience now of many years in this country, that one of the great 

 causes of the comparative failure of many well devised and for a time well 

 carried out schemes of enquiry and observation has been this want of a 

 maintenance of an established system fully thought out in the first instance 

 and modified only so far as to improve and extend, without material alteration. 

 This is unfortunately true of almost every department in this country. The 

 agency is constantly changing and each successive occupant of a post thinks 

 it incumbent on him to signalize his reign by some change, all the better 

 if marked and defined. Another may succeed, and a certain amount of 

 reversion to old systems be again introduced. But meanwhile half the value 

 of the accumulated knowledge is gone, because it is not as it were referable 

 to the same standard. This curious absence of any want of faith in the tra- 

 ditional systems of operation which is to a large extent due to the rapid 

 changes in the controlling elements in this country, and to the absence of 

 those permanent officers, which in England are the mainspring of the ma- 

 chinery, and maintain the works in steady operation, men who in the great 

 offices at home are in reality those who keep the Government of the country 

 going, forms a remarkable contrast to the perfection with which the mere 

 paper records of former Governments are kept, records which however are 

 with exceeding rarity, if ever, examined by new incumbents, until some 

 difficult question be raised. 



But if a well designed system be once established with reference to 

 such solar observations, and such studies of the motions of the satellites as 

 Col. Tennant proposes, there can be very little doubt, that most valuable 

 results will arise from a sustained systematic observation, which could never 

 be expected from desultory action and interrupted system. 



And looking to the immense gain which would result from such an ob- 

 servatory being at considerable elevation, above the mist and clouds which 

 encumber the lower strata of the atmosphere in these countries there can be 

 but little doubt that those results will be clearer and less obscure than could 

 be the case at any lower elevation. 



It is hoped that the establishment of such an observatory might be 

 made the means of instruction to many in practical astronomy, means at 

 present entirely wanting in this country. That the people of this land can 

 investigate such subjects with much success is well shown by the care and 



