xxxiv REPORT — 1842. 



now upon the soundest principles of mutual advantage. It was not always 

 thus that the astronomer found favour and footing in the councils of states- 

 men and the courts of princes. Time was when the strange delusions of 

 judicial astrology reduced such men as Kepler to the level of Dr. Dee ; and 

 it is melancholy to think how much of such a life as Kepler's was wasted in 

 casting the nativities of princes, and calculating the fortunes of their foolish 

 and wicked enterprises. The sun of science has drunk these mists. The tele- 

 scope of a Wellington was pointed, not like that of Wallenstein from his ob- 

 servatory in Egra on the heavenly host, but on the frowning masses of his 

 country's foes. He knew but one, the Homeric omen, the defence of his 

 country and the performance of his duty. Three centuries ago, a Mr. Airy 

 might have been distracted from his intense and important labours at Green- 

 wich, to mark what star was culminating at the birth of a royal infant. We 

 do not now watch the configuration of the heavens on such events ; but to 

 that Providence which has shielded the mother, and under that Providence to 

 the love and prayers of a loyal people we cheerfully confide thefateand fortunes 

 of the infant hope of England : still, though such delusions are swept away, it 

 is impossible that in this maritime country the protection of the State should 

 not in the first instance be accorded to the science which directs her fleets. 

 Even here, as you well know, the labours of this Society have not been 

 wanting nor inefficient. Her advice has been followed, the contribution of 

 her funds has been accepted. It is to the suggestion and the actual assist- 

 ance of this Society that the country owes the reduction of observations now 

 in progress under Mr. Airy ; and were this the only practical result of which 

 we had to boast, I might ask whether this were a mere trifling benefit con- 

 ferred upon the nation which has accepted it at your hands. On this parti- 

 cular point, were it in the least degree doubtful, I might hereafter find an 

 opportunity of appealing to Prof. Bessel, whose authority was specially quoted 

 on a former occasion, and who will shortly be here in person to support it. 

 Yes; and the railroad on Monday will convey in one of its carriages a most 

 important freight. Adam Smith says, that of all luggage man is the most 

 difficult to transport ; fortunately the difficulty is not commensurate with the 

 value of the article. 



" Weigh'd in the balance hero dust 

 Is vile as vulgar clay." 



Were it otherwise I doubt whether the workshop of my friends, Messrs. Sharp 

 and Roberts, could construct an engine of power sufficient to draw here in 

 safety a freight so illustrious as one which is shortly expected here by such 

 conveyance. If ever accident is destined to happen on the Birmingham and 

 Grand Junction rail-road, I hope it may be spared us on an occasion when 

 two such companions as Herschel and Bessel are trusting their lives to its 

 axles. May they convey to us in health and safety the illustrious stranger, 

 the accuracy of whose observations, and the grasp of whose calculations 

 have enabled him, if I am rightly informed, to pass the limits of our planetary 

 system and the orbit of Uranus, to expatiate extra fiammantia mama mundi, 

 and to measure and report the parallax and the distance of bodies, which 

 no contrivance of optics can bring sensibly nearer to our vision — and which 

 remain on the mirrors of our most powerful telescopes, the same points of 

 unextended light which they appeared to the Chaldean shepherd. 



I have been speaking of matters for some time past in progress, and no- 

 torious to all who have taken an interest in j'our proceedings. They are gra- 

 tifying as proofs that the impulse of this Society has been communicated and 

 felt in high quarters. It is surely desirable that, under any form of go- 



