“Be pleased, Sir, to recollect that the result of this investigation is of vital importance to the public and to myself, and that I am contending single-handed against the whole force of Government. If you have the slightest confidence in the justice of your cause, you will not deny me the full benefit of the very brief period which is allotted to me for my evidence in reply to the numberless misstatements (as I maintain them to be) which I anxiously desire to answer. Depend upon it, I have every motive to be as short as I can be with justice to myself. The treatment which I have received will make the termination of this inquiry a most welcome relief.
“If, however, it should still be your pleasure to subject me to the annoyances which I have endured, I must beg leave to state that, after much thought, I have come to this resolution: I will answer any question, however insulting, and will reply to any statement, whatever imputation it may convey, provided the question and statement, together with its answer, are permitted to make part of the evidence on the short-hand writer’s notes. Let the House of Commons see the animus which prompts the treatment of which I complain, and I shall not despair of redress sooner or later; but I shall steadfastly decline answering whenever the short-hand writer is ordered to desist from recording. I know of no right which any member has to subject me to an examination which is to be kept back from the House. I regret I did not act on this principle from the first. Probably the knowledge that an offensive examination would be recorded would have been quite sufficient to prevent its being made.
“R. H.
“Sir George Clerk, Bart., M.P., &c., &c., &c.”
[364] The following extract from a letter from my father, dated “Hazelwood, Birmingham, October 2nd, 1832,” shows at once his interest in Astronomy, and his practical knowledge of the subject:—
“My dear Son,—You, like myself, will probably be asked questions about the comet now talked of as visible. I have just found an account of its movements in the Supplement of the “Nautical Almanac” for this year, page 43rd. I find on calculation that it will be to-night on one side, and to-morrow night on the other side, of a star marked on my globe θ Geminorum. I do not find the star in any of my catalogues—no doubt it is in Wilkinson’s, if I could find time to consult it at the New Library. Its right ascension is at present about 6 hours 39 minutes. Its declination about 30° N. It will be found betwixt the Twins and Capella, much nearer to the Twins. The comet is moving forward at about 7 minutes of right ascension per day, and approaching the ecliptic and the equator 27´ of declination daily. These movements will shortly bring it betwixt the Twins, namely, about the 10th October, at about ¼ of the space from Castor and ¾ from Pollux. I cannot advise dependence on these calculations as exact. I have corrected them by allowing for the errors of prediction as found by some observations quoted from the Atlas newspaper of 30th instant, and have done my best. The course points towards Regulus, which will be found within about 1½° on the 1st November, the comet on the south.
“By these indications, and the help of your telescope, I hope you may find it out.
* * * * *
“P.S.—Will you oblige me by procuring me the means of studying the course of the present comet. I find it called Biela’s comet in the Atlas—the comet of 6·7 years in the ‘Nautical Almanac.’ I mean of knowing what is known by others of its history.”
[365] I am informed by Sir G. B. Airy, the Astronomer-Royal, that “M. Biot’s expedition was not to measure an arc of meridian, but to ascertain the force of gravity by vibrations of a pendulum, a matter connected physically with the other.”—Ed.