ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. 273 



more than my continuance on the Council could do. Were I 1861. 

 not so well assured of this, that the course I take becomes im- Letter on 

 perative, I should content myself with silent acquiescence, and 

 should defer my secession until the actual arrival of the state of 

 things which I fear is on its way. 



Before I enter on the subject I will premise first, that 

 there is nothing in my refusal to serve which has reference to 

 the new President, for whom I entertain, as always, high 

 esteem and regard. Had Mr. Airy been preferred to Dr. Lee in 

 the manner in which Dr. Lee has been preferred to Mr. Airy, 

 my course and my reasons would still have been what they are. 

 Secondly, I fully admit, should any one suppose I question it, 

 that the Society has not exceeded its rights a bit more than I 

 shall have exceeded my own rights in sending this letter. 

 Thirdly, I have not acted in concert with any former colleague, 

 and have not even given a hint of my resolution to any Fellow 

 of the Society. 



The Astronomical Society has gained a high position by 

 sheer hard work. It is the plainest of all the scientific associa- 

 tions, and the one which least glitters by the show of rank and 

 wealth. Its sole thought has been the promotion of Astronomy. 

 And undivided attention to its real business has been rendered 

 easy by such harmony as is very rarely found in public bodies. 

 Nevertheless, during the last two or three years there has not 

 been that entire unity between the Council and the Fellows 

 which had always existed in time past. I believe that such 

 interruption of the usual concord as has taken place was the 

 consequence of adverse feeling in a very small number of the 

 Fellows ; how generated I do not know. Perhaps that bias 

 towards initiation of political action by which Englishmen spoil 

 so many of their extra-political associations may have taken 

 hold of some minds. I thought I saw symptoms of the Council 

 being a corrupt aristocracy, who made pocket boroughs of the 

 planets, and deprived the moon of her due share of the franchise. 

 I will make no further allusions to the manifestations, which satis- 

 fied me, independently of all I knew besides, that the side they 

 came from was the wrong side. 



The feelings I have mentioned soon took the form of a desire 

 to facilitate combined opposition to the list of officers which each 

 retiring Council had always recommended to be their successors. 

 The existing Council met the expression of this [desire by the 

 proposal of those by-laws on the subject which now govern the 



T 



