Veuillez en attendant, Monsieur, recevoir mes sincères félicitations et l'assurance de ma parfaite considération.
Le Ministre de l'instruction publique,
CTE OUVAROFF.
ST PÉTERSBOURG,
ce 24 Août, 1847
—————
5 Septbr.
à Mr G. B. Airy, Esq.,
Astronome Royal de S. M. Britannique à
Greenwich.
* * * * *
Airy provisionally accepted the Order, but wrote at once to Lord John
Russell the following letter of enquiry:
ROYAL OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH,
1847, Oct. 15.
MY LORD,
In respect of the office of Astronomer Royal, I refer to the first Lord of the Treasury as Official Patron. In virtue of this relation I have the honour to lay before your Lordship the following statement, and to solicit your instructions thereon.
For conducting with efficiency and with credit to the nation the institution which is entrusted to me, I have judged it proper to cultivate intimate relations with the principal Observatories of Europe, and in particular with the great Observatory founded by the Emperor of Russia at Pulkowa near St Petersburg. I have several times received Mr Struve, the Director of that Observatory, at Greenwich: and in the past summer I made a journey to St Petersburg for the purpose of seeing the Observatory of Pulkowa.