1830-40] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 51 
should be again eligible until the expiration of one year from the 
termination of his office. 
This provision and the long delay in getting the Charter pro 
duced an awkward situation. To save expense, South’s name only 
had been mentioned in the Charter, and in a very prominent 
manner. It begins thus :— 
Whereas Sir James South, of the Observatory, Kensington, in 
the county of Middlesex, Knight, has by his Petition, humbly 
represented unto us, that he, together with others of our loyal 
subjects, did, in the year 1820, form themselves into a Society. . . . 
And further on it is ordered :— 
.... that the first members of the Council shall be elected within 
six calendar months after the date of this our Charter ; and that 
the said Sir James South shall be the first President of the said 
body politic and corporate, and shall continue such until the 
election as aforesaid. 
Before the Charter was ready, the time of the Annual General 
Meeting of the Society came round again (1831 February 11). 
The draft of the Charter was read and approved, and Officers and 
Council were elected as usual. Although the unborn Charter 
said that South was to be the first President of the newly incor 
porated Society, it also ordered that nobody should be President 
for three years in succession ; and Brinkley, Bishop of Cloyne, 
was accordingly elected President.* But it must have been felt 
soon after, that this election of a President and Council was of 
doubtful legality. The Charter was at last signed by the King 
on March 7.f On the 19th the Council agreed to issue a circular, 
explaining that as doubts had arisen as to an informality in sum 
moning a Special General Meeting for March 11, no business 
had been transacted on that day ; but that another General 
Meeting would be held on April 6 to decide on the acceptance 
of the Charter, and in case of such acceptance to elect Council 
and determine on bye-laws. 
It was evidently a severe blow to South, that he was not to 
be the first President of the Royal Astronomical Society. He was 
present at two Council meetings in March, when Baily (in the 
absence of Brinkley) was in the Chair ; but he absented himself 
on April 6, when he got Stratford to announce that “ he was 
desirous of retiring for the present year.” As Barlow also wished 
* Brinkley had vacated the Professorship of Astronomy at Dublin in 1827 
on being appointed Bishop of Cloyne. It was said in Ireland that “he might 
thank his stars ” for his promotion. 
f Printed at the beginning of volume 5 of the Memoirs ; also separately 
in 8vo in 1831 and several times, last in 1908.