The Royal Observatory of Scotland. 51 



crease of lustre and substance, for the instruction and the 

 emulation of posterity. 



" In this spirit, and remembering well that the first duty of 

 Observatories is to procure observations, and those of the 

 utmost attainable accuracy, the Greenwich Observatory has 

 been furnished, amongst other recent additions, with a mag- 

 nificent meridian instrument, of greater power than the world 

 ever saw before ; and the results are already so promising, 

 that a similar instrument has been ordered for the Observa- 

 tory at the Cape of Good Hope. 



" I cannot refuse my meed of admiration to the inventor of 

 that instrument, or to allow that such a construction would 

 be a notable improvement upon our meridian instruments 

 here ; but having always restricted myself in my public de- 

 mands to the most urgent necessities ; having rather waited 

 until the case itself impelled something to be done ; and 

 having, moreover, distinct ideas on the separate path which 

 should be pursued by each observatory ; I can freely leave 

 these more fortunate establishments to pursue their glorious 

 future ; and would only re-urge again upon the attention of 

 the visitors, the great importance of the speedy acquisition 

 of a proper equatorial instrument ; together with the various 

 items which formed the subject of their recommendation last 

 winter. 



" Our Meridian Instruments, though now less powerful than 

 those at Greenwich, may do much good work ; and if aided 

 to the utmost by an efficient Equatorial, will, I feel confident, 

 satisfy the expectations of the friends of this Institution. I 

 have nothing then to alter on my reports of former years, 

 for nothing therein requested can be spared ; and I will now 

 merely add, that, when once procured, these new means and 

 appliances would enable us to carry out, with hardly any in- 

 crease of time and labour, one of the most important and 

 comprehensive improvements in Practical Astronomy, that 

 has ever fallen to the lot of any observatory, in these ad- 

 vanced times in which we live. 



" I have already remarked that the healthy progress of As- 

 tronomy depending upon observation, — the whole question 

 of the true and the false hypothesis often hanging upon the 



d2 



