REPORT OF THE KEW COMMITTEE. XXXIX 



to our knowledge, any anticipations which could reasonably have been formed 

 at the commencement of the inquiry.' 



" Believe me, my dear Sir, 

 " Faithfully yours, 

 (Signed) " Edward Sabine." 



" Sir B. C. Brodie, Bart, P.R.S" 



Mr. Hamilton to the President of the Royal Society, in reply to his letter of 



Ind June {not given here). 



" Treasury Chambers, June 14, 1860. 

 " Sir, — In reply to your letter of the 2nd inst., with its enclosure from 

 General Sabine relative to the establishment of Colonial Magnetic Observa- 

 tories, I am directed by the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury 

 to state that, without entering into the question what verbal assurances may 

 have been given in December 1858 by the then Assistant Secretary, Sir Charles 

 Trevelyan, of which no record was made, their Lordships observe that the 

 main ground of their letter of the 16th May, 1860, remains unaffected, viz. 

 that, in the opinion of the highest scientific authorities, whatever might be 

 the value of observations at Vancouver Island, that value would be greatly 

 increased by simultaneous observations at some station in the North of China, 

 and, on the other hand, would be ' grievously diminished ' if no station in 

 China was established. Under these circumstances, their Lordships thought 

 it desirable to postpone for a short time the consideration of the question, in 

 the hope that it might be considered under a different state of things in China, 

 rendering possible the attainment of the greatest amount of scientific advan- 

 tage from the expenditure of public money, in case that expenditure should 

 be decided upon. 



" I am, Sir, 



" Your obedient Servant, 

 (Signed) " G. A. Hamilton." 



General Sabine has written the following letter to Dr. Bache, who had 

 intimated to him that, in the event of Her Majesty's Government declining to 

 establish a magnetical observatory at Vancouver Island, it was the wish of 

 the United States' Government to establish one in Washington Territory, in 

 the vicinity of Vancouver Island: — 



" May 22, 1860. 



" Dear Bache, — I waited to reply to yours of April 13th until we should 

 have received the reply of our Government regarding the Vancouver Island 

 Observatory. Mr. Gladstone has availed himself of some expressions in 

 Sir John Herschel's letters and mine (to the effect of the far greater import- 

 ance of having observations on the Chinese as well as on the American side 

 of the Pacific to having either separately) to postpone a decision regarding 

 Vancouver Island until our relations with China shall enable our Govern- 

 ment to consider the question of establishing both simultaneously. Our pro- 

 position, therefore, has fallen to the ground, and it is quite open to your 

 Government to occupy the field which you were willing to concede to us in 

 consideration of the forward part which our Government has hitherto taken 

 in magnetic researches. 



"Now in regard to the instruments, which, as you are probably aware, 

 have been prepared at my own risk, in order that, should our Government 

 accede to the recommendation made by the Royal Society and British Asso- 



