4 8 
HISTORY OF THE 
[1820-30 
ber and elected in January ; and the list of Associates printed on 
1821 February 9 thus contains nine names : 
John B. J. Delambre, Paris. J. D. Vallot, Dijon. 
Chas. F. Gauss, Gottingen. Hen John Walbeck, Abo. 
C. Louis Harding, Gottingen. 
It is possible that the presence of Slawinski in England at 
the time of the original meeting, and his presence among the 
fourteen who met on January 12, may have suggested the status 
of Associate Members ; but it will be noted that no distinction is 
drawn between his name and the others in the Minutes of January 
12 and those of February 8 ; the numeration continues in this sense. 
(1) Although the project of this History has been kept in mind 
for several years in order to make as complete a research as possible, 
it is inevitable that some references should only be discovered just 
too late. After the MS. had been sent to the printer Miss Herschel 
kindly sent me a scrap of a letter from Sheepshanks to Sir John 
Herschel. Judging by another scrap, which implores Sir John to 
burn the letter (of which accordingly little more survives beyond 
this injunction), the remainder of the letter below was probably 
destroyed, including the date ; but it was almost certainly written 
early in 1848, when Sheepshanks must have been writing thé 
obituary notice of Pearson, printed in M.N. 8, 69. The letter 
and the notice shed light on one another, and the letter is valuable 
as emphasising the difficulty that was found, less than thirty years 
after the foundation, in recovering the exact details of our early 
history. Pearson and Baily were both dead, and they alone appear 
to have known the facts. Sheepshanks apparently took great 
pains to ascertain them, and might have hoped to get information 
from Sir John Herschel, if from anyone, but apparently the attempt 
failed. 
The following is the portion of the letter referred to :— 
. . . obedient of slaves, it is most conspicuously seen when I 
am ordered to do what I like. Seriously I think all these proposals 
are good so far as they go. I should object exceedingly to stepping 
out of our proper business, but I see no harm in a modest suggestion 
which binds the advised person to nothing, and which is so indirect 
that it need not be heeded except by a willing person. I am not sure 
whether the reticentia of good and sensible men is not the cause of 
much of the mischief done by charlatans. We blame people for 
being humbugged, without considering that humbug has been the 
Jean Bapt Biot, Paris. 
Alexis Bouvard, Paris. 
William Olbers, Bremen. 
Peter Slawinski, Wilna. 
Appendix to Decade 1820-30 (Chapter I)