Ixiv 



"Proceedings" for 1859, is entitled "On the Application of the Calculus 

 of Probabihties to the results of Measures of the Position and Distance of 

 Double Stars." 



During the four years of his presidency of the Royal Society, Lord 

 Wrottesley was unremitting in his attendance at the meetings of Council, 

 and his conduct of business was guided throughout by the clearness of 

 insight and rectitude of judgment which belonged to his mental character. 

 Among the various subjects which came under his consideration during 

 this period, there was one in which he may be said to have taken a special 

 interest ; the question, namely, whether any measures could be adopted by 

 the Government or by Parliament which would improve the position of science 

 and its cultivators in this country. The subject was brought under the 

 consideration of the Parliamentary Committee of the British Association, 

 of which Lord Wrottesley was Chairman ; and the Committee, after cor- 

 responding with eminent men of science and learning their views on the 

 question, presented a Report to the Meeting of the Association at Glasgow 

 in 1855. In the following summer a motion was made in the House of 

 Commons, by Mr. James Heywood, for a Select Committee to inquire into 

 this question, which was, after some discussion, withdrawn, in order, as it was 

 understood, to allow the matter to be previously considered by scientific men. 

 On this. Lord Wrottesley, without loss of time, brought the matter before 

 the Council of the Royal Society, who referred it in the first instance to 

 the Committee who assisted them in the distribution of the Govern- 

 ment grant, and finally adopted a series of resolutions which were com- 

 municated to Lord Palmerston, then First Lord of the Treasury : but a 

 change of Government and a dissolution of Parliament having soon after- 

 wards taken place, the matter was not again brought before the Legisla- 

 ture. Both as Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee of the British 

 Association and as President of the Royal Society, Lord Wrottesley con- 

 ducted the correspondence relating to this question, and took the chief 

 share in drawing up the Reports. 



Lord Wrottesley was President of the British Association at its Meeting 

 in Oxford in 1860, and in his Address delivered on that occasion, he 

 earnestly recommended due encouragement of the Physical and Natural 

 Sciences as branches of University study. On a later occasion, in a speech 

 delivered in the House of Lords in 1865, on the PubHc Schools Sill, he 

 strongly urged the expediency of introducing science as an important branch 

 of school teaching. 



Alexander Dallas Bache, For. Memb. R.S., was a son of Richar 

 Bache, one of the several children of the only daughter of Dr. Benjamin 

 Franklin. His mother was Sophia Dallas, the daughter of Alexander J. 

 Dallas, and sister of George M. Dallas, whose names are well known in the 

 history of the United States, the former as Secretary of the Treasury, and 

 the latter as Vice-President of the United States, and subsequently as 



