[From a Photograph by the
late Mrs. Cameron.
SIR JOHN F. W. HERSCHEL, BART.
1792–1871.
Astronomer. Son of Sir Frederick W. Herschel. His first great work was his Catalogue of Double and Triple Stars; later on he catalogued the nebulæ, and made researches in Sound and Light. He discovered the solvent effects of hyposulphite of soda on silver salts—the basis of photographic processes. Created a Baronet in 1838, Master of the Mint 1850–55. For many years he was among the most prominent of English scientists.
The Congress of Paris met on February 26, 1856, and a treaty of peace was signed by the plenipotentiaries of the Great Powers on March 30. |Conclusion of Peace.| The most important Article was that which guaranteed the perpetual neutrality of the Black Sea; Russia received back the ruins of Sebastopol in exchange for the wreck of Kars, and the Eastern Question was laid to rest, at least for a season.
THE EARL OF ROSSE’S GREAT TELESCOPE AT PARSONSTOWN.
This great reflecting telescope, still the finest in the world, is 56 feet long; the speculum or mirror of copper and tin at the bottom of the tube is 6 feet in diameter and weighs nearly 4 tons. Its nominal magnifying power is 6,000, and it reflects about 165,000 times as much light as the naked eye itself would receive. It was designed and constructed in 1845 by the late Earl of Rosse, and has rendered great service to science.
For this result England had to pay down four and twenty thousand lives and add forty-one millions to her National Debt; but she learned in addition to take vigilant precaution against the enervating influence of prolonged peace. To this may be added the bracing moral effect which follows on the supreme and disciplined exercise of a nation’s power.