ON MAGNETICAL AND METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 69 
Report, explanatory of the proceedings which have led to an application on the 
part of the British Association and of the Royal Society to Her Majesty's 
Government and to the Honourable Court of Directors of the East India 
Company, for a continuance of the Magnetic and Meteorological Observa- 
tions now carrying on under their respective sanctions: drawn up by a 
Committee appointed by those bodies, consisting of Sir J. Herschel, the 
Marquis of Northampton, the Dean of Ely, the Master of Trinity College, 
Cambridge, Col. Sabine, Dr. Lloyd, the Astronomer Royal, Sir J. Lubbock, 
Professor Christie, and Professor J. D. Forbes. 
It being understood that the second term of three years for which the 
Magnetic and Meteorological Observatories established under Her Majesty’s 
Board of Admiralty at Greenwich and in Van Diemen’s Island, those sup- 
ported by Her Majesty’s Board of Ordnance at Toronto, St. Helena, and the 
Cape of Good Hope, and those of the Honourable East India Company at 
Simla, Madras, Bombay and Singapore, was granted, will terminate at the 
expiration of the current year, unless provision be made for their continuance, 
and that with their cessation the combined system of British and Foreign co- 
operation for the investigation of magnetic and meteorological phenomena, 
which has now been five years in progress, must be broken up,—it be- 
came a subject of deep consideration to the British Association, in which the 
conception of this operation was matured, and at whose instance, conjointly 
with that of the Royal Society, it was set on foot and supported by the mu- 
nificence of the Government and the Honourable East India Company, 
whether it were consistent with the interests of science that they should suffer 
this term to expire without an effort on their part to procure its continuance, 
or the contrary. 
Connected as the science of Britain is with that of the other nations whose 
Governments have taken an interest in these operations, it appeared alike un- 
just to those nations and unsatisfactory in itself to come to any conclusion 
without calling for the opinion and judgement, not only on those of our own 
countrymen who have most distinguished themselves in these departments of 
science and have taken active part in the observations, but also of the most 
. eminent magnetists and meteorologists of other countries, especially such as 
have superintended observatories established for these objects. 
Accordingly it was resolved, at a meeting of the British Association held at 
York in the year 1844, to invite to a conference on the subject all the most 
eminent persons in those sciences in Russia, Germany, Prussia, Belgium, 
France, Italy and America, who had taken any part in the observations, and 
some others particularly distinguished in the sciences of Magnetism and Me- 
teorology whose opinions appeared entitled to great weight ; and in the mean- 
time also to solicit the written communication of their sentiments on the sub- 
ject in question, as a further guide to the formation of a well-considered 
opinion. 
In reply to the request for written communications, which was also made to 
such of our own countrymen as were known best to understand the subjects 
_ and to have advanced them by their researches, a number of very valuable 
letters were received, which were forthwith printed (with translations of 
_ those written in the German language) and placed in the hands of every 
person likely to take any part in the discussion or effective consideration of 
_ the subject, including the President and Council of the Royal Society, and 
also the members of the Committee of Physics of the Royal Society, and the 
Council and Committee of Recommendations of the British Association itself. 
Pursuant to the invitation of the Association above alluded to, the follow- 
