434 Anniversary Meeting. [Dec. 1, 



was sent pointing out the good work that had been done in the 

 Observatory, and the exceptional character of the institution, and 

 recommending it to the favourable consideration of the Government. 

 Unfortunately, however, the loss of income applicable to the mainte- 

 nance of an observatory has not been made good, though the Treasury, 

 " having regard to the ad vice of the Royal Society, and to the diminu- 

 tion in the income of the Observatory," has granted a sum of 2,OOOZ. 

 in aid of its funds, the annual income derived from which sum is to 

 be applied by trustees to the maintenance and purchase of instruments 

 and apparatus. 



Another correspondence with the Treasury as to the bathymetrical 

 survey of the lakes within the British Isles did not lead to any con- 

 cession in favour of such a necessary complement to the National 

 Ordnance Survey, though the omission in our maps of all details 

 relating to the depth of our lakes and the contour of their beds, 

 cannot be justified on practical, and much less on scientific grounds. 



In May last the Astronomer Royal brought under our notice the posi- 

 tion of this country with respect to the International Bureau des Poids 

 et Mesures, an institution established by what is commonly known as 

 the Metric Convention ; and it was resolved that in the opinion of the 

 President and Council it is highly desirable that our country should 

 take part in the International Commission of Weights and Measures, 

 and contribute the sum which our adhesion would entail. A deputa- 

 tion was appointed to bring the subject under the notice of the Lords 

 of the Treasury, and after some correspondence, the Society was 

 authorised to enter into informal negotiations with the officers of the 

 Bureau, with the happy result that Great Britain was invited to join 

 the Metric Convention, and through her Ambassador at Paris has, I 

 believe, now given in her adhesion to it, and is entitled to all the 

 privileges accorded by the Bureau. The appliances at the command 

 of the Bureau for the verification not only of the standards of the 

 metric system, but of other units of measure, far surpass in scientific 

 accuracy anything that is at present available in this country, and we 

 now enjoy the double advantage of being removed from the state of 

 isolation in which for some years we have stood in regard to the 

 other nations of Europe, and of now being affiliated to an establish- 

 ment in which the verification of standards has been carried to the 

 highest perfection. At the same time it is distinctly understood that 

 our adhesion to the Bureau in no way commits the Government of 

 this country to any change of opinion favourable to the adop- 

 tion of the metric system, but that our entire freedom to retain our 

 own system of weights and measures is absolutely preserved. What- 

 ever may be the advantages of the metric system from a scientific 

 point of view, the question whether a scale of weights, money, and 

 measures, which in its lowest denominations follows a duodecimal 



