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THE MAKERSTOUN OBSERVATIONS. 15 
in every matter likely to advance the cause that you have had so much at heart, 
and which were likely to enable me to perform those duties devolving upon 
me with satisfaction and comfort to myself,—it is for these, and many similar 
kindnesses, that I have to offer you my most grateful and most hearty 
thanks. 
You have acknowledged, in the first part of the Makerstoun Observations, 
the assistance which you derived from the advice of Professor J. D. Forsus.as to 
the formation and continuance of the Makerstoun Observatory, and I have to 
acknowledge my obligations to him in a more extensive way. As his pupil | am 
indebted to him for his valuable instructions, and especially for that love of strict 
science which he has sought with so much success to diffuse among his students 
in the University of our Scottish metropolis, whether by his prelections or by his 
example, through those original and laborious scientific investigations which he 
has prosecuted so successfully. In some of the latter of these I had the pleasure 
and good fortune to assist him, benefiting as I hope I did, by that cautious and 
careful spirit which distinguishes his researches. Besides many other kindnesses, 
I owe to his recommendation your selection of me for the care of your observa- 
tory: since then, I have been in constant communication with him, either as 
my friend and adviser, or in his capacity as secretary of the Royal Society of 
Edinburgh, in whose Transactions the work of your observatory has appeared. 
To the Rev. Dr H. Luoyp, the excellent President of the Royal Irish Aca- 
demy, I also owe my best acknowledgments. It was to him that the observatory 
owed its first scheme of observation, and much attention and examination of the 
earliest observations. I have also been indebted to him in frequent communica- 
tions, and, above all, to his published papers on the instruments and processes of 
observatory work, without the use of which my own progress, and that of most 
of the Directors of our Colonial Observatories, would have been difficult and 
painful labour. 
Mr Arry, the Astronomer Royal, I have before thanked for the instruction 
which I received in the Greenwich Observatory before undertaking the charge of 
yours ; but I have also to thank him for the readiness and willingness with which 
he has invariably thrown open to me any matter connected with the observations 
at Greenwich, which I may have desired for comparison with our own. 
I have already noticed the valuable grant of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 
towards the printing of the volumes of Observations. I may also notice that 
copies of the volumes of Makerstoun Observations have been forwarded by the 
Royal Society to the institutions and individuals, given in the Addendum to this 
Report, in addition to those entitled to receive them as portions of the Edinburgh 
Transactions. 
Permit me to conclude by expressing my hope that these labours, to which 
