254 A Review of some leading Points in I he Official Character 



ceedings in reference to these foreign standards. Thns he occa- 

 sioned a delay of more than a year. At length, different mem- 

 bers of tlie Board of Trade, who were apprized of this delay, 

 called upon Sir Joseph to assign his reasons, which appeared so 

 frivolous that he was immediately outvoted upon the question, 

 and the inquiry ordered to proceed, agreeably to the original di- 

 rections. Sir Joseph's plea for his opposition to so natural a 

 plan, was, that as he had recently got Lord Stanhope's scheme 

 overthrown, and a commission appointed to revise British weights 

 and measures, a commission at the head of vvhich he was placed, 

 it would be Iiighly unbecoming and indecorous to allow any ex- 

 periments on foreign weights and measures to be carried on at 

 the Royal Mint independently of him and his colleagues in the 

 said commission. This childish pretext was altogether disap- 

 proved by most of the members of the Board, and subjected Sir 

 Joseph to the mortification of defeat; a mortification which he 

 did not very long survive. 



At the commencement of the present year 1S20, several 

 promoters of astronomy in theory and practice instituted an 

 ^^ Astronomical Society ." An interesting address explanatory of 

 theobjects of theSociety,was drawn up and activclv circulated, not 

 merely among the friends to astronomical science in Ikitain, but 

 among the principal encouragers of astronomy on tlie continent. 

 Stimulated by this address, nearly all the distinguished observers, 

 and other promoters of astronomy in theory and practice in 

 Britain, became members, and several of the most eminent astro- 

 nomers abroad have testified their approbation of the Society, 

 and requested to be admitted as associates. Among the officers 

 for conducting the affairs of the Institution during the first year, 

 we observe the following well-known names: Sir If. Herschel, 

 the Astronomer Royal, Drs. Pearson and Gregory, Col. Bcaii- 

 foy, Capt. Colby, Messrs. Bahlage, Baily, Colehrooke, Groom- 

 Iridge, J. F. IV. Herschel, Harrison, Moore, Stokes and 

 Troughton, Thus far the Society has proceeded with unpre- 

 dicted success ; and there is every probability that it will long 

 and extensively tend to the diffusion of astronomical knowledge. 

 It has already operated as an incentive to other learned bodies ; 

 of which a most gratifying evidence presents itself, in the reso- 

 lution of the University of Cambridge to erect a new Observatory 

 upon a grand and noble scale. 



Copies of this address, so well received in every other quarter, 

 were presented to Sir Joseph Banks: it will be natural to in- 

 quire, How did he receive them ? I really regret to sav, that 

 their appearance called forth the most puerile and pitiable jea- 

 lousy. Several of the nicmbers of the new Society were fellows 

 of the Royal Society, and personal friends of Sir Joseph. These 



he 



