Mr Professor Airy,
&c., &c.,
Cambridge.
* * * * *
"On March 18th 1835 I started (meeting Sheepshanks at Kingstown) for Ireland. We visited Dublin Observatory, and then went direct to Markree near Sligo, to see Mr Cooper's telescope (our principal object). We passed on our return by Enniskillen and Ballyjamesduff, where my former pupil P. Morton was living, and returned on Apr. 3rd.—On Apr. 20th I was elected to the Royal Society, Edinburgh.—Apr. 22nd my wife wrote me from Edensor that her sister Florence was very ill: she died shortly after.—On May 4th I began lectures and finished on May 29th: there were 58 names.—My former pupil Guest asks my interest for the Recordership of Birmingham.—In June was circulated the Syndicate Report on the Observatory.—The date of the Preface to the 1834 Observations is June 16th.
"The Ministry had been again changed in the spring, and the Whigs were again in power. On June 11th Lord Auckland, who was again First Lord of the Admiralty (as last year), again wrote to me to offer me the office of Astronomer Royal, or to request my suggestions on the filling up of the office. On June 15th I wrote my first reply, and on June 17th wrote to accept it. On June 18th Lord Auckland acknowledges, and on June 22nd the King approved. Lord Auckland appointed to see me on Friday, June 23rd, but I was unwell. I had various correspondence with Lord Auckland, principally about buildings, and had an appointment with him for August 13th. As Lord Auckland was just quitting office, to go to India, I was introduced to Mr Charles Wood, the Secretary of the Admiralty, with whom principally the subsequent business was transacted. At this meeting Lord Auckland and Mr Wood expressed their feeling, that the Observatory had fallen into such a state of disrepute that the whole establishment ought to be cleared out. I represented that I could make it efficient with a good First Assistant; and the other Assistants were kept. But the establishment was in a queer state. The Royal Warrant under the Sign Manual was sent on August 11th. It was understood that my occupation of office would commence on October 1st, but repairs and alterations of buildings would make it impossible for me to reside at Greenwich before the end of the year. On Oct. 1st I went to the Observatory, and entered formally upon the office (though not residing for some time). Oct 7th is the date of my Official Instructions.
"I had made it a condition of accepting the office that the then First Assistant should be removed, and accordingly I had the charge of seeking another. I determined to have a man who had taken a respectable Cambridge degree. I made enquiry first of Mr Bowstead (brother to the bishop) and Mr Steventon: at length, consulting Mr Hopkins (a well-known private tutor at Cambridge), he recommended to me Mr Robert Main, of Queens' College, with whom I corresponded in the month (principally) of August, and whom on August 30th I nominated to the Admiralty. On Oct. 21st F.W. Simms, one of the Assistants (who apparently had hoped for the office of First Assistant, for which he was quite incompetent) resigned; and on Dec. 4th I appointed in his place Mr James Glaisher, who had been at Cambridge from the beginning of 1833, and on Dec. 10th the Admiralty approved.
"During this quarter of a year I was residing at Cambridge Observatory, visiting Greenwich once a week (at least for some time), the immediate superintendence of the Observatory being placed with Mr Main. I was however engaged in reforming the system of the Greenwich Observatory, and prepared and printed 30 skeleton forms for reductions of observations and other business. On Dec. 14th I resigned my Professorship to the Vice-Chancellor. But I continued the reduction of the observations, so that not a single figure was left to my successor: the last observations were those of Halley's Comet. The Preface to my 1835 Cambridge Observations is dated Aug. 22nd, 1836.
"In regard to the Northumberland Telescope, I had for some time been speculating on plans of mounting and enclosing the instrument, and had corresponded with Simms, A. Biddell, Cubitt, and others on the subject. On Apr. 24th Tulley the younger was endeavouring to adjust the object-glass. On May 31st I plainly asked the Duke of Northumberland whether he would defray the expense of the mounting and building. On June 4th he assented, and money was placed at a banker's to my order. I then proceeded in earnest: in the autumn the building was erected, and the dome was covered before the depth of winter. I continued in 1836 to superintend the mounting of the instrument.
"In regard to the Planetary Reductions: to July 11th J. Glaisher had been employed 27 weeks, and from July 11th to Jan. 16th, 1836, 25 weeks. Mr Spring Rice, when Chancellor of the Exchequer, had promised money, but no official minute had been made, and no money had been granted. On Aug. 21st I applied to Mr Baring (Secretary of the Treasury). After another letter he answered on Oct. 15th that he found no official minute. After writing to Vernon Harcourt and to Spring Rice, the matter was arranged: my outlay was refunded, and another sum granted.—In regard to Groombridge's Observations, I find that on Dec. 16th certain trial reductions had been made under my direction by J. Glaisher.—I had attempted some optical experiments in the summer, especially on the polarization of sky-light; but had been too busy with the Observatory to continue them.
"In August my wife was in a critical state of health.—In December I received information regarding merchant ships' chronometers, for which I had applied to Mr Charles Parker of Liverpool.—On Dec. 8th Mr Spring Rice and Lord John Russell offered me knighthood, but I declined it.—On July 23rd I went into Suffolk with my wife's sisters Elizabeth and Georgiana, and returned on August 3rd: this was all the holiday that I got in this year.—On the 14th of August I saw Mr Taylor, the Admiralty Civil Architect in London, and the extension of buildings at Greenwich Observatory was arranged.—I made various journeys to Greenwich, and on Dec. 17th, having sent off our furniture, we all quitted the Cambridge Observatory, and stayed for some days at the house of Miss Sheepshanks.
"Thus ended a busy and anxious year."