of the British Association, to the meeting at Glasgow, 1840. 445 



Company, who will certainly not fail to present the result of 

 their munificence to the world in an accessible form. The 

 latter can only be overcome by a well-organized system. The 

 planning of this system, will, of course, be one of the first duties 

 of the Royal Society ; and it is important that it should be 

 so arranged, that while every facility in the way of reduction 

 may be given to those who shall hereafter engage in the theo- 

 retical discussion of the observations, care is taken at the same 

 time that the data are presented entire, without mutilation or 

 abridgement. The Council of the Royal Society, will, doubt- 

 less, be greatly assisted in this duty by the eminent individual 

 who has had in every way so large a share in the formation 

 of these widely scattered magnetic establishments, and whose 

 own observatory, founded by the munificence of the Dublin 

 University, has nearly completed a twelve months' magnetic 

 observations on that enlarged and complete system of which 

 it set the first example. 



In referring, as we have done, to those most valuable ser- 

 vices which the Royal Society have rendered, and are con- 

 tinuing to render, in directing and superintending the details 

 of this great undertaking, in both its branches, it is right that, 

 on the part of the British Association, we should express the 

 cordial satisfaction and delight with which we have witnessed 

 their exertions, united with our own in this common cause; 

 nor should we omit to recognize how much this desirable con- 

 currence has been promoted by the influence of the noble 

 president of the Royal Society, the Marquis of Northampton, 

 whom, as on so many former occasions, we have the pleasure 

 of seeing amongst us, as one of our warmest supporters and 

 most active members. 



In the volume of our Transactions now under notice, is con- 

 tained the memorial presented to Lord Melbourne by the 

 Committee of the British Association, appointed to represent 

 to Her Majesty's Government the recommendations of the 

 Association on the subject of terrestrial magnetism. This 

 memorial is one of many services which have been rendered 

 to our cause by Sir John Herschel, whose name, whose in- 

 fluence, and whose exertions, since our meeting two years since 

 at Newcastle, have largely contributed to place the subject where 

 it now stands. The devoted labour of other of our members 

 has long been given to an object which they have had deeply at 

 heart, viz. the advancement of the science of terrestrial mag- 

 netism ; but the sacrifice which Sir John Herschel has made 

 of time, diverted from the great work, in which his ardent 

 love of astronomy, his own personal fame, and his father's 

 memory are all deeply concerned, the more urgently demands 



