1862.] 285 



and the mounting ; its probable cost, and the time requisite for its 

 completion." 



In October the President and Council received from the Duke of 

 Newcastle, Her Majesty's principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, 

 a communication in which their attention is requested to the copy of 

 a despatch from Sir Henry Barkly, enclosing the address of the Board 

 of Visitors which has just been read, and soliciting the cooperation 

 of the Royal Society by a report on the several points on which an 

 opinion is desired. The Duke further expressed his confidence in 

 the readiness of the Royal Society to do whatever may be in their 

 power for the encouragement of science in the Colony of Victoria. 



No time was lost in bringing this communication before the Coun- 

 cil, who requested the President and Officers to prepare the draft of 

 a reply, to be approved at a subsequent meeting. 



Upon the general question, viz. the importance of the results to be 

 obtained by such a telescope at Melbourne in latitude 38 S., and on 

 the honour which the establishment and maintenance of the proposed 

 observatory would reflect on the Colony of Victoria, the reply might 

 well have been immediate ; but there are other points on which the 

 opinion of the Royal Society is requested, viz. " the most suitable 

 construction of telescope for the purpose, both as to the optical part 

 and the mounting, its probable cost, and the time requisite for its 

 completion," for replies to which more time and consultation are 

 requisite. It happens fortunately that all these points were well 

 discussed in the correspondence which passed between the members 

 of the Committee of the Royal Society appointed in 1852 to 

 consider the steps most desirable to be taken towards the establish- 

 ment of a telescope of very great optical power for the observation 

 of Nebulae in the southern hemisphere. This correspondence was 

 printed, and some copies of it yet remain ; but since that epoch, 

 a great step in advance has been made, by the construction by 

 Mr. Lassell, at his own expense, of a 4-feet reflector, exceeding in 

 dimension the telescope contemplated in 1852, by its conveyance 

 from Liverpool to Malta, and by its employment for a twelvemonth 

 past at Malta under the personal superintendence of Mr. Lassell 

 himself. It is possible that the opinions previously formed may 

 be in some respects modified by the additional experience which has 

 thus been acquired; the President and Officers have therefore 



