510 Anniversary Meeting . [Nov. 30, 



from the President and Council addressed to the Duke of Newcastle, in 

 reply to His Grace's communication of October 10, 1862 : 



" Report of the President and Council of the Royal Society respecting the 

 proposal of erecting in Melbourne a Telescope of greater optical power 

 than any previously used in. the Southern Hemisphere. 

 "1. The President and Council learn with pleasure that the Board of 

 Visitors at the Melbourne Observatory have proposed resolutions, indica- 

 ting their sense of the importance of erecting at Melbourne an equatorially 

 mounted Telescope of great optical power, and that the proposal is favour- 

 ably regarded by Sir Henry Barkly, Governor of Victoria, and by His 

 Grace the Secretary for the Colonies. In respect to the importance which 

 the President and Council attach to such an undertaking, they need do no 

 more than refer to the fact that in the year 1850 the Royal Society and 

 the British Association for the Advancement of Science presented a joint 

 Memorial to Her Majesty's Government, in which they urged the establish- 

 ment of such a telescope at some suitable place in the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere. The scientific objects to be attained thereby are so clearly stated 

 in that Memorial, of which a copy is enclosed, and in the Resolutions of 

 the Board of Visitors of the Melbourne Observatory, in July 1862, that 

 the President and Council feel it unnecessary to do more than refer to these 

 documents. 



"2. Since the presentation of the Memorial of 1850, an equatorially 

 mounted telescope of greater optical power than that then recommended 

 has actually been constructed by Mr. Lassell, at his own expense, in Eng- 

 land, and erected in Malta, where he is now occupied in making obser- 

 vations with it : we have now, therefore, in addition to our previous know- 

 ledge, the benefit of his experience. In referring to Mr. Lassell's Telescope, 

 the President and Council wish it, however, to be understood that they do 

 not conceive that it should necessarily be copied in all respects, and that 

 for the present they think it best to leave the details of construction in 

 many respects open to further consideration. 



"3. When the subject was previously under consideration, letters were 

 written to some of the most eminent practical astronomers of Great Britain 

 and Ireland, requesting them to state their opinions as to the best mode of 

 construction ; and a correspondence ensued, of which a printed copy is sent 

 herewith. After receiving the communication from the Colonial Office of 

 the 10th of last October, the President wrote to the four gentlemen who 

 were appointed as a Committee on the former occasion to superintend the 

 construction of the instrument (in case the Government should accede to 

 the request), and also to Sir John Herschel, enclosing a copy of the former 

 correspondence, and asking whether their views had in any way changed 

 in the interval. The answers received from each have been circulated 

 among the others, as was done on the former occasion, and have in most 

 cases elicited additional remarks. 



"4. Availing themselves of the information thus so kindly afforded 



