6 4 
HISTORY OF THE 
[1830-40 
to the King), who, though not exactly a scientific man, had de 
feated Sir John Herschel in a contest for the Chair of the Royal 
Society, offered in 1831 June to assist the R.A.S. to procure rooms 
in Somerset House in the Strand. The offer was, of course, gladly 
accepted, but nothing happened for a long time. A plan was 
suggested for taking a house jointly with two other societies ; 
and on the other hand the Chirurgical Society, who were about 
to change their residence, wanted to know if the R.A.S. would 
continue to take rooms with them. Baily heard in 1832 from the 
Council of the Royal Society that “ there was hope of the matter 
being accomplished without any further interference on the part 
of H.R.H.” At last, in 1834 April, the Duke forwarded a letter 
from the Treasury, stating that there was every disposition to 
comply with the suggestion, that certain parts of the building lately 
occupied by the Exchequer offices should be appropriated for the 
R.A.S., but that the temporary use of them would still be required 
for a short time. Finally, Baily as President was able to announce 
to the Council in the following November that he had taken 
possession of three rooms on the Mezzanine floor of Somerset 
House (between the principal and ground floors) and four rooms 
on the ground floor. At the Annual Meeting in 1835 February 
the Council were able to greet the Society in their new home (which 
they were to occupy for exactly forty years), and to announce that 
arrangements had been made for the daily attendance of the 
Assistant Secretary from one till four o’clock. An additional room * 
was handed over to the Society in 1836 November. 
The library, which had hitherto been “ literally inaccessible,” 
now for the first time became of use to the Fellows. De Morgan 
had in 1829 offered his services to arrange and catalogue the books 
and manuscripts belonging to the Society, a task for which his love 
of books and strong appreciation of the value of accurate biblio 
graphy fitted him in an unusual degree. This work was continued 
by Mr. Epps, and a catalogue was first published in 1838. A 
beginning had already been made towards the valuable collection 
of manuscripts which now form a very important part of the 
library. The original observations of Halley only existed in 
MS. at the Greenwich Observatory. In 1832, on the representa 
tion of Baily, the Admiralty ordered a copy of these observations 
to be made and presented to the Society. This copy was care 
fully collated with the original, and this interesting series of old 
observations were thus made more accessible.! Collated copies of 
* “ The West room on the Mezzanine floor above the meeting room.” 
f An Account of Halley’s observations was given by Baily in volume 8 of 
the Memoirs (pp. 169-190), and some particulars about his instruments by 
Rigaud ( 9 , 205-227). Rigaud had in 1832 published Bradley’s Miscellaneous 
Works, including many observations not printed before.