REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. XXXV 



that occasion to His Royal Highness The Prince Consort, the President 

 Elect of the British Association for the ensuing year"] was duly acted upon. 

 The particulars of this communication, together with His Royal Highness's 

 most gracious letter to the then President of the Association, expressive of his 

 deep interest in the subject, and his readiness to afford every assistance in 

 his power in facilitating the labours of that body and of the Royal Society 

 towards the accomplishment of the object in view, have been communicated 

 to the Council, and are recorded in the Minutes of its meeting held on Dec. 

 17th, 1858. 



The Resolutions agreed to and the Report of the Committee were also, in 

 pursuance of the directions of the General Committee, placed before the 

 President and Council of the Royal Society, with a request for their further 

 cooperation, — which, it is almost needless to state, has been most cordially 

 received and acted on. 



In further compliance with the recommendations adopted by the General 

 Committee, a communication was made of the Resolutions on the subject, by 

 the Presidents of the Royal Society and the British Association, to the Lords 

 Commissioners of the Treasury, as stated in the Minutes of the meeting of 

 Council above mentioned, the immediate result being an expression of their 

 Lordships' wish for a postponement of the subject for the present year. But 

 on the President of the Association, pursuant to the request of the Council, 

 having requested an interview with Sir C. Treveiyan, and reading to him 

 the letter from the Prince Consort above mentioned, it was intimated that 

 an application for a single station at Pekin, for Magnetic and Meteorological 

 Observations, emanating from the joint Committee of the Royal Society and 

 British Association, would find their Lordships disposed to comply with it. 

 The further correspondence to which this intimation gave rise (including a 

 letter from General Sabine to the President of the British Association, ex- 

 planatory of the circumstances which would at all events create delays in 

 the preparations for any active steps until the summer of the present year, 

 arising from the time requisite to prepare the necessary instruments and other 

 considerations) stands also recorded in the form of an addendum to the 

 Minutes of Council of the above-mentioned date, and need not therefore 

 be here repeated. 



Since these communications, the subject, so far as the action of the 

 Government is concerned, remains in abeyance ; and it will be for the 

 decision of the meeting of this Association now pending, whether any 

 and what step should be further taken to recall its attention to the subject. 

 Meanwhile, for the present no time has been hitherto lost in the preparation 

 of instruments, so far as would be justifiable by the prospect of the esta- 

 blishment of at least one Observatory. General Sabine reports, in a letter 

 to Sir J. Herschel, dated August 29th, 1859, to the following effect: — 



"My dear Sir, — I went to Kew this morning, and I had the gratifica- 

 tion of seeing the Self-recording Magnetic instruments prepared for the first 

 of the proposed new observatories, in the house which had been erected for 

 their examination and for the instruction of the parties who are to use them. 

 Everything may now be said to be ready for the reception and instruction of 

 such parties by the Assistants of the Kew Observatory. The temporary 

 house is detached from the Observatory, so that parties under instruction 

 will not interfere with the regular work of the Observatory instruments. 

 Gas is introduced into the temporary house ; and on consulting Mr. Stewart, 

 I found him of opinion that about six weeks might fully suffice for the in- 

 struction of the parties both in the self-recording and in the absolute instru- 

 ments (the latter are also ready, and are used in a separate house). At the 



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