SECOND REPORT-— 1832 . 
1 82 
abroad. Whatever may be its success, none is more creditable 
to the body which founded it.—Now if we examine what has 
been done by individual attempts, we shall find it small. We 
have discussed theories of refraction and aberration, perhaps 
quite as much as our share in the science requires ; but we 
have done nothing in examining the past state of the heavens, 
or making it subservient to a knowledge of their future state: 
the reduction of Bradley’s observations was left to a foreigner; 
the formation of Tables of the Sun and Moon, from Bri¬ 
tish observations, even when the theory was put in a distinct 
shape, was left to foreigners ; and, as if we had determined to 
leave the present state of the heavens also in obscurity, our 
own observations have too generally been cast on the w T orld un¬ 
reduced, with a hope, I suppose, that others w r ould have the 
zeal to reduce them. The observations that require only mo¬ 
derate instruments, with patience and zeal on the part of the 
observer, as the discovery and observation of comets, and the 
observation of the small planets, (which on the Continent have 
generally been made with unmounted telescopes,) have been 
little attended to. Of the latter, some observations by Mr. 
Groombridge, some at Greenwich, and a few by myself, con¬ 
stitute, I believe, the whole amount. 
I will not deny that there are some exceptions to my general 
assertion ; and in one of these my hearers will anticipate me. 
I think that I can fix on only two discoveries, the results of 
combined theory and observation, which are original in the 
present century, and one of these belongs to an Englishman. 
New planets and periodical comets had been discovered in the 
last century; abstract theory of every kind and observations 
of almost every kind had been produced : but the existence of 
a resisting medium w T as established in this century by Encke, 
and the practical prediction of the phases of double stars is due 
to Sir John Herschel. Nor can I omit to mention Sir Thomas 
Brisbane and Mr. Baily, and (for several investigations con¬ 
nected with the physics of Astronomy,) Mr. Ivory, and lately 
Mr. Lubbock. But after every credit has been given to their 
labours, it will, I believe, be allowed that the part in which 
England has contributed most to Astronomy, and which is likely 
to be mentioned with greatest gratitude by future historians of 
the science, is that in which she has contributed as a nation. 
In proof of the justice of my second assertion, the following 
remarks may be sufficient. Our instruments I conceive (though 
a German would not allow 7 it,) to be superior to those of any 
other nation. The observations at our observatories are con¬ 
ducted, I imagine, with greater regularity and greater steadiness 
