Proceedings of the British Association, 285 



the burning of the Houses of Parliament. He published, at the 

 request of the Admiralty, the correspondence and catalogue of 

 Flamsteed ; he presented to the Astronomical Society, a volume con- 

 taining the catalogues of Ptolemy, Ulugh, Beigh, Tycho Brahe, He- 

 velius and Halley, with learned prefaces and critical notes, showing 

 their relations to each other and to later catalogues. His preface 

 and introduction to the British Association Catalogue, and more 

 than one- third of the catalogue itself are printed ; and from the 

 critical examination of the authorities, npon which his assumed 

 positions rest, and from the careful distribution of the stars which 

 are selected (more than 8000 in number) in those parts of the 

 heavens where they are likely to be most useful to observers as 

 points of comparison, it promises to be the most important contribu- 

 tion to the cause of practical astronomy, which has been made in 

 later times. The whole of the stars of the Histoire Celeste are 

 reduced, and a considerable portion (more than one-fifth) printed, 

 but it is not known whether the introductory matter which, from 

 him, would have been so important, was prepared at the time of his 

 death. Mr. Baily was the author of the best Treatise on Life Annui- 

 ties and Insurances which has yet appeared, as well as of several 

 other publications on the same subject. His knowledge of the 

 mathematicians of the English school was very sound and complete, 

 though he had never mastered the more refined resources of modern 

 analysis. In the discussion of the Cavendish and other experiments, 

 he freely availed himself of the assistance of the Astronomer- Royal, 

 and Mr. De Morgan, in the investigation of formulas which were 

 above his reach ; but he always applied them in a manner which 

 showed that he thoroughly understood their principle, and was fully 

 able to incorporate them with his own researches. In the midst of 

 these various labours, (and the list, which I have given of them, 

 ample as it is, comprehends but a small part of their number), Mr. 

 Baily never seemed to be particularly busy or occupied : he entered 

 freely into Society, entertaining his scientific as well as mercantile 

 friends at his own house with great hospitality. He was rarely 

 absent from the numerous scientific meetings of committees and 

 councils — he was a member of all of them, — which absorb so large a 

 portion of the disposable leisure of men of science in London : but if a 



