XXXVIil REPORT—1850, 
If this be true, what discoveries may we not expect, even in Europe, from 
a fine telescope working above the grosser strata of our atmosphere? This 
noble experiment of carrying a large reflector to a southern climate has been 
but once made in the history of science. Sir John Herschel transported 
his telescopes and his family to the south of Africa, and during a voluntary 
exile of four years’ duration, he enriched astronomy with many splendid 
discoveries. Such a sacrifice, however, is not likely to be made again ; and 
we must therefore look to the aid of Government for the realization of a 
project which every civilized people will applaud, and which, by adding to 
the conquests of science, will add to the glory of our country. At the 
Birmingham meeting of the Association, its attention was called to this sub- 
ject; and, being convinced that great advantages would accrue to science 
from the active use of a large reflecting telescope in the southern hemisphere, 
it was resolved to petition Government for a grant of money for that pur- 
pose. The Royal Society readily agreed to second this application ; and, as 
no request from the British Association has ever been refused, whatever 
Government was in power, we have every reason to expect a favourable 
answer to an able memorial from the pen of Dr. Robinson, which has just 
been submitted to the minister. 
A recent and noble act of liberality to science on the part of the Govern- 
ment justifies thisexpectation. It is, { believe, not yet generally known that 
Lord John Russell has granted £1000 a-year to the Royal Society for pro- 
moting scientific objects. ‘The Council of that distinguished body has been 
very solicitous to 'make this grant effective in promoting scientific objects ; 
and I am persuaded that the measures they have adopted are well-fitted to 
justify the liberality of the Government. One of the most important of 
these has been to place £100 at the disposal of the Committee of the Kew 
Observatory. This establishment, which has for several years been sup- 
ported by the British Association, was given to us by the Government as a 
depository for our books and instruments, and as a locality well-fitted for 
carrying on electrical, magnetical, and meteorological observations. During 
the last six years, the Observatory has been under the honorary superin- 
tendence of Mr. Ronalds, who is well known to the scientific world by his 
ingenious photographic methods of constructing self-registering magnetical 
and meteorological apparatus. On the joint application of the Marquis of 
Northampton and Sir John Herschel, as members of the Association, her 
Majesty’s Government have granted to Mr. Ronalds a pecuniary recompense 
of £250 for these inventions; and I am glad to be able to state, that Mr. 
Brooke has also received from them a suitable reward for inventions of a 
similar kind. 
Under the fostering care of the British Association, the most valuable 
electrical observations have been made at Kew, and Mr. Ronalds has con- 
tinued, from year to year, to make those improvements upon his apparatus 
which experience never fails to suggest ; but I regret to say, that in conse- 
quence of our diminished resources, the Association, at its meeting in 1848, 
came to the resolutionofdiscontinuing the observations at Kew—appropriating, 
at the same time, an adequate sum for completing those which were in pre- 
ress, and for reducing and discussing the five years’ electrical observations 
which had been published in our annual reports. I trust, however, that 
means will yet be found to maintain the Observatory in full activity, and to 
carry out the original objects contemplated by the Committee. Having had 
an opportunity of visiting this establishment a few weeks ago, after having 
inspected two of the best conducted observatories on the Continent, where 
