504 Anniversary Meeting. [Nov. 30, 



The reply from the Royal Society of London was dated April 19, 

 1850, and was as follows : 



" The President and Council of the Royal Society agree entirely with 

 the British Association in their estimate of the importance of the active 

 use of a large reflector in the southern hemisphere, and deem the subject 

 well worthy of a recommendation to Her Majesty's Government, in which 

 they would be ready to concur ; but they would deem it advisable that, 

 in such recommendation, the locality to which the telescope should be 

 sent, and the establishment to which its use should be confided, should be 

 left to the choice of Her Majesty's Government." 



These replies were submitted to the Council of the British Association 

 on the 20th of May, 1850, when the Council passed the following reso- 

 lution : 



" That the object which the General Committee had in view in their 

 resolution for a recommendation to establish a large reflector at the Cape 

 of Good Hope, viz. the systematic observation of the nebulae of the 

 Southern Hemisphere with an instrument of great optical power, would 

 be accomplished by the establishment of such an instrument in any other 

 part of the Southern Hemisphere which should be equally suitable for 

 the observations in question ; the Council are therefore of opinion that the 

 President will be carrying out the spirit of the recommendation of the 

 General Committee, by putting the proposition to be made to Her Ma- 

 jesty's Government in the general form suggested by the President and 

 Council of the Royal Society, and by concurring with the President of 

 the Royal Society in submitting the recommendation so modified to the 

 consideration of Her Majesty's Government." 



The President (Dr. Robinson) was further requested to draw up a Me- 

 morial to accompany the Resolution, and to communicate thereupon with 

 the Earl of Rosse, President of the Royal Society. The Memorial pre- 

 pared by Dr. Robinson, and concurred in by the Earl of Rosse, was presented, 

 in accompaniment with the Recommendation of the General Committee 

 thus amended, to Earl Russell (then Lord John Russell), the First Lord of 

 the Treasury. The Memorial itself may be referred to in the " Report of 

 the Council to the General Committee of the British Association assem- 

 bled at Edinburgh in July 1850." The reply from the Treasury was as 



follows : 



" Treasury Chambers, August 14, 1850. 



SIR, I am commanded by the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's 

 Treasury to acquaint you that your Memorial of the 3rd ultimo, addressed 

 to Lord John Russell, applying, on behalf of the British Association for tbe 

 Advancement of Science, for the establishment in some fitting part of Her 

 Majesty's dominions of a powerful Reflecting Telescope, and for the ap- 

 pointment of an observer charged with the duty of employing it in a 

 review of the Nebulae of the Southern Hemisphere, has been referred by 

 His Lordship to this Board ; and I am directed to inform you with re- 



