Xxiv REPORT — 1851. 



Royal Society, and presented to Lord John Russell, recommending the esta- 

 blishment of a Reflecting Telescope of large optical power, at a suitable 

 station, for the systematic observation of the Nebulae of the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere. The reply is as follows : — 



" Treasury Chambers, 14th August, 1850. 

 "Sir, — I am commanded by the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's 

 Treasury to acquaint you, that your Memorial of the 3rd ult., addressed to 

 Lord John Russell, applying on behalf of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science for the 'establishment, in some fitting part of Her 

 Majesty's dominions, of a powerful reflecting telescope, and for the appoint- 

 ment of an observer charged with the duty of employing it in a review of 

 the Nebulae of the Southern Hemisphere,' has been referred by his Lordship 

 to this Board ; and I am directed to inform you, with reference thereto, that 

 while My Lords entertain the same views as those expressed by you as to 

 the interest attaching to such observations, yet it appears to their Lordships 

 that there is so much difficulty attending on the arrangements which alone 

 could render any scheme of this kind really beneficial to the purposes of 

 science, tliat they are not prepared to take any steps without much further 

 consideration. 



" I am. Sir, &c., 



" Your obedient Servant, 



"G. CORNEWALL LeWIS." 



The Council have communicated a copy of this reply to the President and 

 Council of the Royal Society, who had concurred in the recommendation ; 

 accompanying the communication with an assurance that the British Associ- 

 ation will not lose sight of this important object, and requesting the con- 

 tinued co-operation of the Royal Society. The specific difficulties alluded 

 to in this letter have not been communicated by the Government ; but the 

 Council entertain the hope that they are not of such a nature that time and 

 further consideration may not remove them. The Council will now conclude 

 the duty entrusted to them with the expression of their belief that the time 

 is not far distant when the subject may be again, and successfully, brought 

 under the consideration of Her Majesty's Ministers. 



in. For the purpose of obtaining from the Authorities of the Ordnance 

 Department replies which might be satisfactory to the General Committee, 

 relative to the progress which had been made towards the publication, re- 

 commended in the year 1846, of the meteorological observations made since 

 1834, at the Ordnance Survey Office, at Mountjoy, near Dublin, — and also 

 towards the publication, recommended by the British Association in 1849, 

 and sanctioned by the Treasury in February, 1850, of the principal geodetic 

 results of the Trigonometrical Survey of the British Islands, — the Council 

 requested two of their members, Lord Wrottesley and Sir Charles Lemon, 

 who are also members of the Legislature, to make the necessary inquiries ; 

 and the Council are in consequence enabled to state on the authority of replies 

 received from the Inspector-General of Fortifications :— 1st. In respect to the 

 Mountjoy Observations, that " the whole of the observations have been copied 

 into tables for publication, and the monthly means taken, and that consider- 

 able progress has been made in abstracting the results; and that the Director 

 of the Ordnance Survey will shortly have to make application to the Board 

 of Ordnance to obtain the necessary sanction for the Stationery Office, in 

 Dublin, to commence the printing of this work " And 2nd, in respect to 



