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1850-60] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 
modelled, the method of voting for the award of the Gold Medal 
was modified and the present system established. Up to that date 
the practice had been to receive nominations or proposals at the 
November meeting, to take no action in December and to select the 
recipient, from among those proposed, in January. The Council 
meeting of January therefore had all the nominations before it, 
and was directed by the Bye-law to “ decide to which of the persons 
so proposed the Medal shall be given at the ensuing Annual General 
Meeting.” No explicit power was placed in the hands of the Council 
to vote that a Medal should not be awarded in any given year, 
but as the award required a three-fourth majority it would obviously 
occasionally occur that the candidate obtaining the suffrage of the 
majority could not satisfy three-fourths of the Council, and no 
election would be made. Up to 1850 no Medal had been awarded 
on six occasions. This procedure was found to have certain 
admitted difficulties, and it was decided to change it by adoption 
of the principle of dividing the election into two steps ; a selection 
from among the candidates in December and the election of the 
selected candidate in January by a three-fourths majority. It 
should be particularly noted that the question on which they are 
asked to vote in December is different from that on which the 
January vote is taken. In December the vote taken is as to the 
relative merits of the candidates ; in January, as to absolute 
merit, i.e. whether the astronomical work of the selected candidate 
is up to the standard set for the Medal. The January voting is not, 
as has sometimes been assumed, a confirmation of the previous 
selection, but in the words of the Bye-law is a vote “ whether the 
nominee then before the Council shall or shall not receive the Gold 
Medal,” i.e. is his work of such merit as to deserve unquestionably 
this high honour ? There is therefore no inconsistency in a member 
of Council who votes for a particular candidate in December and 
against him in January ; he is merely expressing his view that 
while the nominee is the best of those proposed, he is not quite of 
sufficient distinction for the award. 
This principle was clearly laid down by the Committee of 1856, 
and the Bye-laws were then redrafted in the form which, with one 
minor amendment, now stands. In 1857, Bishop was elected as 
President, and S. C. Whitbread took his place as Treasurer. Whit 
bread was known rather as a meteorologist than an astronomer, 
having been one of three original founders of the Meteorological 
Society, with Lee and James Glaisher, in 1850. He was a most 
efficient Treasurer, and held the office for twenty-one years. He 
was an absolute terror to defaulters in arrear with their contribu 
tions, and used to visit them personally and ask them to explain 
their conduct before he recommended the Council to expel them.