REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. XVIL 
_ pared with the similar instruments which have been employed in the measure~ 
_ ments of the Russian arc of the meridian. 
2. The Council have been informed, that a deputation from the Philoso- 
phical Society of Birmingham has been appointed to present, at this Meeting, 
an invitation from that Society and from other public bodies at Birmingham, 
to the British Association, to hold the Meeting of 1849 in that town. 
8. The Council have received from Mr. Phillips, Assistant General Se- 
cretary, a communication entitled “ Reasons for thinking that the Annual 
Meetings of the British Association ought not te be restricted to places which 
present formal invitations and guarantees of expenses.” Considering the 
importance of the subject, and the respect due to the opinions of so experi- 
enced and zealous a friend of the Association, the Council have deemed it 
desirable that Mr. Phillips’s communication should be brought to the notice 
of the General Committee on the occasion of presenting this Report: but 
having been apprised that an invitation is.to be brought forward at Swansea 
to hold the Meeting of 1849 at Birmingham, and regarding this invitation 
as likely to be very favourably received, it has not appeared to the Council 
_ desirable to take any other present steps in reference to the subject of Mr. 
___ Phillips's communication, than that of bringing the communication itself to 
_ the notice of the General Committee. (See page xxi). 
] 4.-The Council have added the following names to the list of Correspond- 
ing Members of the British Association :— : 
M. Struvé of St. Petersburg. 
M. Leverrier of Paris. 
Charles Buonaparte, Prince of Canino. 
The Chevalier Bunsen. 
Professor Nillson of Sweden. 
Professor Esmark of Christiania. 
Dr. Van der Hoven of Leyden. 
Dr. J. Milne-Edwards of Paris. 
5. The Council have deemed it desirable to take into serious consideration 
_ the expediency of maintaining for a longer period the establishment at Kew ; 
_ for this purpose they reappointed the Committee whose former report on the 
same subject was submitted to the General Committee at Southampton in 
1846, and they now submit to the General Committee a second report from 
the same Committee. The Council have also to express their concurrence 
in the opinions contained in that report, with respect to the services which 
have been rendered to science by that institution, even on the limited scale 
on which alone it has been in the power of the British Association to maintain 
it; and to the probability that ere long the interests of science and the re- 
quirements of the public service will call for a Government establishment, 
haying for its purpose some of the important objects originally contemplated 
by the observatory at Kew. The Council also concur in the opinion ex- 
pressed by the Committee, of the.expediency of deferring for the present a 
_ memorial to Her Majesty’s Government on the subject. 
Report of the Kew Observatory Committee. 
_ The Committee appointed to consider the subject of the Kew Observatory 
having obtained from Mr. Ronalds a report on the actual state of the building, 
the instruments and other property of the Association therein deposited, as 
_ well as respecting the observations and experiments made there up to the 
} gare time, are enabled to state to the Council as respects the former, that 
a 848. ec 
