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mend that hourly observations, for not more than five years, should 

 be undertaken at certain stations in the British Colonies; and a 

 letter was addressed to the President of the Royal Society, asking 

 for his cooperation, and that of the Council of the Society, in en- 

 deavouring to attain that object. 



This application was favourably received by the Council of the 

 Koyal Society; and on the 10th of December, 1857, the following 

 resolution was adopted in reference to it : 



" That Sir John Herschel, the Astronomer Royal, the Dean of 

 Ely, and Dr. Whewell, be appointed a Committee, to cooperate with 

 the Committee appointed with this view by the British Association, 

 and to take, in conjunction with them, such steps as may be neces- 

 sary, including, if it be thought desirable, an application to Govern- 

 ment." 



In consequence of this resolution, a correspondence took place 

 among the members of the two Committees, which having resulted, 

 it is believed, in a general agreement as to the course to be adopted, 

 the joint Committee so acting in cooperation met at Leeds on the 

 24th of September, and in the first instance proceeded to inquire 

 into the nature and scientific value of the results which have already 

 been secured by the system of observation hitherto carried out, at the 

 observatories maintained by the Government, at the joint recom- 

 mendation of these two bodies, with a view to forming a distinct 

 opinion whether they are such as to merit being regarded as a reason- 

 able, and, what may be called, a remunerative return for the labour 

 and thought bestowed upon them, and the very considerable ex- 

 penditure of the public money incurred by them. In so doing, they 

 have limited their views to the results, as compared with the ex- 

 penditure, in the British Colonial Magnetic Observatories only, with- 

 out taking into consideration those deducible from observations made 

 under foreign auspices ; and they find that, at the cost of an ex- 

 penditure which may be reckoned at about 400 per annum (ex- 

 clusive of the cost of instruments, outfit, and publication) for each 

 of the several observatories at St. Helena, Toronto, Hobarton, and 

 the Cape of Good Hope during the respective continuance of each, 

 the accumulated observations, so far as they have yet been discussed, 

 have produced the following results, which they consider as satis- 

 factorily established by the discussion : 



