121 
1850-60] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 
the foundation of the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac, 
the first year of issue being for 1855, was welcomed. 
At Liverpool in 1854 the Earl of Harrowby obtained assistance 
for the astronomical section of the address, evidently considered a 
necessary part of it, and included a report prepared by Challis on 
the present state of the science. Again in 1857 at Dublin the Rev. 
Humphrey Lloyd began with astronomy, and gave a competent 
summary of recent progress. 
One literary event during our decade must not pass unnoticed, 
the publication of Grant’s History of Physical Astronomy. For 
this work the author received the Gold Medal in 1856, an honour 
never before accorded for literary service. The book is well 
known to all astronomers and will long continue to be read. 
The internal or domestic history of the Society during these ten 
years was one of quiet activity and progress, and was marked by 
none of those clashes of personalities which, while often unpleasant 
to contemporary spectators, furnish the memorialist with his most 
telling paragraphs. The annual meeting of 1850 February elected 
Airy as President for his fourth year. The Treasurer was Bishop, 
the secretaries A. De Morgan, a most devoted friend of the Society, 
who served in that office for sixteen years (1831-39 and 1847-55), 
and Capt. Manners ; the Foreign Secretary, Hind ; and among the 
Council were Adams, James Glaisher, the famous meteorologist 
and balloonist, and John Lee, a generous benefactor of the Society. 
Among the Vice-Presidents were Main, who subsequently became 
Radcliffe Observer, and Sheepshanks. The next year Adams re 
placed Airy, the other officers and members of Council remaining 
for the most part unchanged. 
In this year the Council were much alarmed at a proposal of the 
Government to erect offices for the scientific societies on ground held 
bjr the Commissioners of the 1851 exhibition at Kensington Gore. 
They were unanimous in denouncing this scheme, and expressed 
themselves as more than satisfied with the rooms they had occupied 
in Somerset House for eighteen years. They maintained that the 
removal of the Society to a “ distant suburb ” would compel the 
resignation of many of the working Fellows, and they said that if 
the scheme were proceeded with they would have to petition Her 
Majesty for leave to remain in their present apartments ; should 
this not be granted, they would prefer to hire their own quarters 
rather than exile themselves. The Royal Society Council w r as 
equally unanimous in rejecting the Government project, and nothing 
more was heard of it. In 1854 the question of removal again came 
up, when the rebuilding of Burlington House as a home for the 
Royal Academy and for all the leading scientific societies became a 
practical possibility. The Society was, however, quite comfortable