REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. xvii 
Council of the Royal Society, had the satisfaction of being informed of the 
entire agreement of that body in the importance attached by the British 
Association to the active use of a large Reflector in the Southern Hemi- 
sphere, and of their readiness to concur in a recommendation to that effect 
to Her Majesty’s Government. The Council have further to report, that 
the following Memorial has been drawn up by the Rev. Dr. Robinson, 
President of the British Association, with the concurrence of the Earl of 
Rosse, President of the Royal Society, and has been presented to Lord 
John Russell. 
Copy of the Memorial to Lord John Russell. 
“ My Lorp,—At the last Meeting of the British Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science, that Assembly came to a resolution which has been 
adopted by the Royal Society, and which therefore I am directed, conjointly 
with the President of that illustrious body, to lay before your Lordship. 
_ “ The purpose is, that the Government be requested to establish, in some 
fitting part of Her Majesty’s dominions, a powerful reflecting telescope (not 
less than 3 feet aperture), and to appoint an Observer charged with the duty 
of employing it in a review of the Nebulz of the Southern Hemisphere. 
“In evidence of the high importance of such an investigation, it is suffi- 
cient to refer to the way in which its proposal was welcomed by the British 
Association. That assembly, comprising upwards of 1500 persons, among 
whom were found almost every British name of scientific renown, and of 
whom all are more or less devoted to the pursuit of physical knowledge, may 
not unfairly be considered an exponent of the national mind on such an occa- 
sion ; and I have never seen it admit any similar resolution with a more en- 
thusiastic approval. 
“For the department of Nebular Astronomy is that which at present has 
_ the most powerful hold on public.attention, and stands most in need of public 
assistance. Others are worked out by the pen and in the closet, or by instru- 
ments of easy attainment, and in establishments already fully organized: the 
_ only results which they can now yield are uninteresting except to a few, and 
are valued by the mass only from an instinctive perception of the glory which 
_ they confer on human intellect. But it is far otherwise with this; the myste- 
rious forms on which it is employed are at present objectsof universal curiosity, 
from their position (outworks as it were of the universe), their evident analogy 
_ to the system of which we are a part, and which we may hope to study in 
them, and the Dynamic questions which the marvellous arrangements of 
' many of them suggest. I may add, that in its origin it is almost exclusively 
ours ; the fame which will reward its completion should be ours also. The 
history may be very briefly given. About sixty-eight Nebule had been ill 
seen and worse described, when the elder Herschel was led to explore them 
_ by the encouragement and aid of his sovereign George III. To those pre- 
viously known, he not only added 2500 more, but by classing them, by clear 
and methodical description, and directing attention to the relations which 
connect them with other portions of the universe, he gave this branch of 
astronomy its powerful vitality. His no less distinguished son, following his 
example with even greater success, has not merely extended the list of northern 
nebulz to an amount which would have ennobled any other name, but has 
given the whole work complete precision by an accurate determination of the 
position of all contained in his own and his father’s lists, thus placing them 
fully within the reach of subsequent observers. Not content with this, he 
transported to the other hemisphere those instruments which had rendered 
1850. - : c 
