1830-40] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 
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way which seems to have fallen into oblivion later on. In 1834 
November, Baily, as President, announced that he had during the 
recess (probably early in August) received a letter from Lord 
Melbourne, First Lord of the Treasury, requesting that the Council 
would wait on him in order to recommend a proper person to fill 
the post of His Majesty’s Astronomer at the Edinburgh Observa 
tory, the administration of which had recently been taken over 
by the Government. As there was not time to call a meeting, 
Baily and four others had waited on Melbourne, and recommended 
Henderson ; and this was approved by the Council.* Henderson 
received the appointment and started work at once ; his observa 
tions made up to the end of 1835 were sent to the Council in 1836 
to be reported on, as to whether they ought to be printed ; and the 
same was done the following year, till the Home Office had got to 
understand that this precaution was unnecessary. The printing 
of observations seems at that time never to have been undertaken 
by any public body without the Society being consulted. The 
East India Company in 1834 was quite willing to allow the Society 
to pay for the printing of Johnson’s Catalogue of 606 southern 
stars observed by him at St. Helena. Baily, in stating that the 
catalogue was of a high order of excellence, pointed out that the 
Society was founded for the collection of the observations of 
private individuals, not of public institutions, and that their 
funds were limited. After which the Company agreed to print the 
catalogue, and it came out in 1835. In the same year the Council 
was asked to supervise the printing of Maclear’s Cape Observations, 
which request was of course agreed to. 
The last occasion on which the aid of the Council was invoked 
by the Government during this decade was in 1839 March, when the 
Treasury forwarded a Memorial from a number of people, who 
had subscribed towards the erection of an observatory near Glasgow, 
praying for assistance to carry this object into effect. The Trea 
sury requested the Society to give their opinion as to the propriety 
of complying with this request. The Council recommended this 
to be done, suggesting, however, that the observations be annually 
transmitted to the Treasury. This led to the erection of the 
Glasgow Observatory, which was taken over by the University 
in 1845. 
4. The publications of the Society during this decade bear 
witness to the rapid rise of astronomy in this country after a long 
* Thomas Carlyle was a candidate for the post and thought himself ill-used 
by his friend Jeffrey, then Lord Advocate, “ who gave the office to a law-clerk.” 
See Reminiscences of Thomas Carlyle, edited by J. A. Froude, London, 1881. 
As a youth, Henderson had been a writer’s clerk.