505 



these observatories should be again established for a limited period, 

 furnished with instruments from Kew, embracing all modern im- 

 provements. The propriety of pursuing this course has been care- 

 fully investigated by a Joint Committee of this Society and the 

 British Association, of which Sir John Herschel acted as Chairman. 

 They have reported strongly in its favour, and an application has 

 accordingly been made to the Government by Prof. Owen, as Presi- 

 dent of the British Association, and myself, urging the re-esta- 

 blishment of these observatories at four stations, viz. Newfound- 

 land, Vancouver's Island, the Falkland Isles, and at Pekin or some 

 adjacent station. I cannot but add the earnest expression of my 

 hope that the Government will be induced to regard with favour this 

 proposal, for I well know that all the distinguished men who have 

 made magnetical science their peculiar study, including the honoured 

 name of Humboldt, are most earnest in desiring it. It would re- 

 quire more time than I can afford to bestow on the subject, were I to 

 attempt even to hint at all the benefits which might flow from the 

 complete elimination and elucidation of the magnetical laws ; but 

 the construction of correct and complete charts, showing the 

 variation and the isodynamical and isoclinal lines at given epochs, 

 is alone an object of transcendent importance to commerce and 

 navigation. To this must be added the accurate establishment of 

 the data on which are founded the methods adopted for ascertaining 

 and correcting the deviations of the compass in iron ships ; and 

 besides, we must always bear in mind that the result of modern 

 speculations seems to show that all the so-called imponderable 

 agents, heat, light, electricity, and magnetism, are intimately con- 

 nected by mysterious links ; every accession to our knowledge of 

 one has therefore an important bearing on the elucidation of all 

 the others. 



It would appear from a communication which has been received by 

 your Council, that it has been in contemplation by the Government 

 to erect, on the unoccupied site to the north of Burlington House, 

 an office for the Commissioners of Patents. This is a mode of em- 

 ploying the large surplus income which is now derived from patent 

 fees, to which no objection can be reasonably made ; but the whole 

 subject of the working of the patent laws must at no very distant date 

 again undergo a searching investigation. It can never be tolerated 



