The Sheepshanks' collection of instruments, viz., 1. 30-inch transit, by Simms, with level and two iron stands. 2. 6-inch transit theodolite, with circles divided on silver; reading microscopes, both for altitude and azimuth; cross and siding levels; magnetic needle; plumbline; portable clamping foot and tripod stand. 3. 4% achromatic telescope, about 5 feet 6 inches focal length; finder, rack motion; double-image micrometer; objectglass micrometer; two other micrometers; one terrestrial and ten astronomical eyepieces, applied by means of two adapters. 4. 3-inch achromatic telescope, with equatoreal stand; double-image micrometer; one terrestrial and three astronomical eyepieces. 5. 24-inch achromatic telescope, with stand; one terrestrial and three astronomical eyepieces. 29. Box of magnetic apparatus. 109, 110 30. Hassler's reflecting circle, with artificial horizon roof. 31. Box sextant and 24-inch glass plane artificial horizon. 32. Plane speculum artificial horizon and stand. 33. 2-inch circular level horizon, by Dollond. 34. Artificial horizon roof and trough. 35. Set of drawing instruments, consisting of 6-inch circular protractor; common ditto; 2-foot plotting scale; two beam compasses and small T square. 36. A pentagraph. 37. A noddy. 38. A small Galilean telescope, with the object lens of rock-crystal. 39. Six levels, various. 40. 18-inch celestial globe. 41. Varley stand for telescope. 42. Thermometer. 6. 2 achromatic telescope, about 30 inches focus; one ter No. 8, to Prof. Wheatstone. No. 10, to Sir J. Herschel. No. 19, to Mr. Dayman. restrial and four astronomical eyepieces. 7. 2-foot navy telescope. 8. 45-inch transit instrument, with iron stand, and also Y's for fixing to stone piers; two axis levels. 9. Repeating theodolite, by Ertel, with folding tripod stand. 10. 8-inch pillar-sextant, divided on platinum, with counterpoise stand and horizon roof. 11. Portable zenith instrument, with detached micrometer and eyepiece. 12. 18-inch Borda's repeating circle, by Troughton. 13. 8-inch vertical repeating circle, with diagonal telescope, by Troughton and Simms. 14. A set of surveying instruments, consisting of a 12-inch theodolite for horizontal angles only, with extra pair of parallel plates; tripod staff; in which the telescope tube is packed; repeating table; level collimator, with micrometer eyepiece; and Troughton's levelling staff. 15. Level collimator, plain diaphragm. 16. 10-inch reflecting circle, by Troughton, with counterpoise stand; artificial horizon, with metallic roof; two tripod stands, one with table for artificial horizon. 17. Hassler's reflecting circle, by Troughton, with counterpoise stand. 18. 6-inch reflecting circle, by Troughton, with two counterpoise stands, one with artificial horizon. 19. 5-inch reflecting circle, by Lenoir. 20. Reflecting circle, by Jecker, of Paris. 21. Box sextant and 3-inch plane artificial horizon. 23. Mountain barometer. 24. Prismatic compass. 25. 5-inch compass. The other Beaufoy clock, the two invariable pendulums, and the brass quadrant (said to have been Lacaille's), reported for some years past as being in the possession of the Royal Society, but which could not be found by that Society, are still under inquiry, nothing definite having as yet been ascertained respecting them. The Council have awarded the Medal to our Secretary, Mr. Carrington, for his Catalogue of Stars, from observations made at Redhill. Mr. Main will state the grounds of this award at a later period of the Meeting in the usual way. The Council think it right to add that the award of the Medal in two successive years to gentlemen who have been or are zealous and influential officers of the Society, has not been made without full knowledge of what may be said by those who have not examined for themselves the whole series of awards made since the commencement of the Society. But they further declare their conviction that the work now rewarded has a merit which it would be moral cowardice to pass over, for no other reason than that its author is employing time and talents in the service of the Society. And they rest quite assured that this will be the opinion of those who use Mr. Carrington's Catalogue at home and abroad. At a special General Meeting, held on the 11th of last June, some alterations in the bye-laws were enacted, with which it is of importance that every Fellow should make himself well acquainted. The practice of submitting a list of Officers and Council for election, hitherto followed by the Council for con venience, is now enjoined by a bye-law. But, in addition to this list, any names forwarded by any two or more Fellows before the ordinary meeting of Council in December, are also to be submitted to the General Meeting in February; the common right of striking out any of these names and substituting others remaining unaltered. These lists are to be circulated as soon after the Meeting of Council in December as can be conveniently done. The effect of the change is that a much longer time is given for deliberation and concerted action; and any two Fellows now possess the power of making known their joint opinions as to the persons most fit to be the Officers and Council of the Society, without trouble or expense to themselves. This statement will account for the change of time and mode in the circulation of the balloting lists recently transmitted to all the Fellows. The details of this change will be found in the new edition of the Bye-laws recently published, together with some minor alterations which need not be noticed here. In the Report of the Council to the last Annual Meeting it was remarked that the number and variety of the instruments presented to the Society by Miss Sheepshanks might be taken as evidence of the great attention bestowed by our late lamented Fellow upon the art of instrument-making generally. Some further particulars on this subject will not be uninteresting to members, many of whom were probably not so much acquainted with the nature of Mr. Sheepshanks' pursuits as to be able to appreciate fully the extent to which we are indebted to him for improvements in the machinery so successfully employed of late in the various operations of practical astronomy. We believe that Mr. Sheepshanks never undertook an uninterrupted series of observations of any particular class, his attention being directed principally to the examination of its means already at the command of the practical astronomer, and its improvement in future. Perhaps there is scarcely one of the many instruments that he possessed which did not undergo in his hands a systematic trial of its powers by application to some practical process which would subject those powers to a fair test; and in the course of operations of this description the defects and advantages of the several varieties of form were in most cases distinctly elucidated, and an improved construction was in many instances the result. Some contrivances, now considered almost indispensable to the astronomer, were, we believe, entirely his own; for example, the slipping-piece, so generally adopted as part of the apparatus applied to an equatoreal telescope employed in the measurement of small celestial arcs. And it was in the course of a long succession of experiments, undertaken with a view to the general object abovementioned, that he became the possessor of the many instruments which are now in the hands of the Society, and these derive therefore additional interest from the circumstances connected with them; from the just appreciation of their powers, which has been made in most instances, and from the improvements to which, in many, their examination led the way. It must not, however, be inferred from the above remarks that any portion of the apparatus is in the present state of science unserviceable. Improvements there certainly have been; but as in some cases, in which it was possible, such improvements were introduced into these instruments themselves, and as they continued to be employed with success in many of the ordinary operations of practical astronomy by Mr. Sheepshanks himself, as well as by others, at whose disposal they were on various occasions placed, there is every reason to believe that in the hands of the Fellows of this Society they will yet do good service, and assist materially in the prosecution of the cause the advancement of which we all so earnestly desire. The name of Richard Sheepshanks, so well known and so much respected in this Society, has been permanently connected with the University of Cambridge, and with his own college, by a splendid donation from his nearest representative. Ten thousand pounds Consols have been invested as the principal of a fund bearing the name of Sheepshanks, one-sixth part of which is to maintain an astronomical exhibition at Trinity College, while the remainder is to be devoted to the encouragement of astronomy in the University, under conditions which have been made public. The Council feel great pleasure in recording this noble tribute to the memory of an astronomer to whom this Society owes so much, and may reasonably hope that readers of this Report, when the present generation has long passed away, will be reminded by these few sentences of useful labours and excellent results, for which the Sheepshanks fund shall have furnished the means. Nor can they omit to couple with this notice an allusion to another princely donation, of quite a different kind, made to the country not long ago by another member of our astronomer's family,-a family of many tastes, but of one spirit. The twenty-seventh volume of the Memoirs is now all but ready for publication. It contains two papers by Mr. Cayley, which cannot fail to attract the attention of those who take an interest in the progress of physical astronomy. In the first of these papers the author has rigorously investigated the problem of disturbed motion, with especial reference to the circumstances depending on the variable plane of the disturbed orbit, and has deduced formula for the variation of the elliptic elements founded on his peculiar mode of treating the subject. In his second paper Mr. Cayley has exhibited an important application of his theory, by supplying a step which was wanting to Professor Hansen's Lunar Theory, in order that its results might be rendered readily comparable with those of other geometers. In a short paper the Astronomer Royal has fully substantiated certain statements which he had made on a former occasion relative to Oltmann's calculations of ancient eclipses. It is well known that the solar eclipse of March 15 was, in general, very imperfectly observed throughout England in consequence of the unfavourable state of the weather. At Cambridge, where the observers were rather more fortunate in this respect, some micrometrical measures were taken, which Professor Challis has employed in investigating the corrections applicable to the elements upon which the computations of the various circumstances relative to the eclipse depend. It appears from his researches that the line of central phase, as computed from Hansen's Lunar Tables, was situated a little to the north of the actual line, while on the other hand Burckhardt's Tables threw the line a little to the south of the position indicated by observation. The series of communications in the volume concludes with a paper by Captain Clarke, "On the Reduction of Occultations of Stars by the Moon." By an elegant and simple process, the author has investigated the coefficients in the equations of condition for obtaining the small corrections applicable to the various elements upon which the time of an occultation depends. Observers of occultations will be enabled, by means of the results contained in this paper, to give a practical form to their labours with as little trouble of computation as the complexity of the subject can admit of. The Monthly Notices continue to offer an easily accessible channel of publication to observers and computers of all classes connected with the Society, while the importance of directing the attention of the Fellows from time to time to the labours of Astronomers in other countries has not been lost sight of. Since the last Anniversary it has been considered expedient to extend the distribution of this portion of the Society's publications to various individuals and Institutions, both at home and abroad, in addition to those whose names have hitherto appeared on the list for this purpose. At the same time, the successive 113, 114 Report of the Council numbers are now, in all cases, forwarded to their respective destinations as soon as they are received from the printer. The adoption of this practice will, no doubt, be attended with a small additional outlay on the score of postage, but the advantages derivable from an early circulation of the contents of each impression are obviously so great as amply to outweigh any considerations of this kind. A plan has been carried into effect by which the Monthly Notices will become an integral part of the volumes of the Memoirs. All are aware that, for some years past, an octavo volume of Monthly Notices has always been given with each volume of Memoirs sold. It has been found that, by re-imposing the type of the Monthly Notices into a quarto form, with double columns, it is practicable to form an edition of the Notices which may be stitched up with the Memoirs, so as actually to form part of the volume. The expense of printing the annual report of each year twice will thus be avoided. It has sometimes been suggested that it was unnecessary to make the annual report a part of the volume of Memoirs, but those who have been students of old history have always protested against the omission. They have represented that it is a very serious defect of the older Transactions that they supply no materials for the histories of their several societies; from which it not unfrequently arises that the papers themselves are unaccompanied by information necessary to their being properly understood as historical monuments. Both ends are now made to meet; the annual report, and much current information besides, form a part of the very volume which contains the larger Memoirs; and the annual report is not printed twice. This saving, and other circumstances, will, it is hoped, enable the Council to carry into effect what every one wishes, namely, the gratuitous presentation of the Memoirs to all Fellows who make application for them. Two fresh channels for the publication of astronomical intelligence and research have been opened during the year,the additions to M. Le Verrier's daily Bulletins of the weather, and Dr. Brunnow's Astronomical Notices. In the first of these series, in which for the first time something like a general view of the daily meteorology of Europe is presented by the agency of the electric telegraph, and a first step taken towards outstripping the storm, by turning to the service of man one of its own elements, M. Le Verrier has taken advantage of its rapid dissemination by improved postal arrangements, to convey in all directions notices of discoveries, short ephemerides, and extracts from the valuable communications of his correspondents, many of which we may hope to see reprinted hereafter in a more permanent form. In the second, very recently started, Dr. Brunnow proposes to publish separately the researches and certain of the observations made at the Observatory of Ann Arbor in Michigan, now under his able direction. There may be need of both these channels of publication, and at present these may be early days for pronouncing an opinion on their ultimate advantage to astronomy; yet it may be remarked that the main feature of utility of such publications as the Astronomische Nachrichten, the Astronomical Journal, and our own Monthly Notices, is, that in their pages are collected together the shorter communications of observers, where, within moderate compass may now and hereafter be found the current astronomical literature of the time. If the practice of publishing in this manner should go beyond the cases in which distinct reason exists for anticipating the appearance of the Nachrichten and similar works, the secession, to give what would then be the appropriate name, would be rather an impediment than an assistance to those for whose use the new works are intended. Every additional subscription, moreover, is an increase of difficulty to the man of small means. 114, 115 At Cambridge, the Lowndean Professorship, vacant by the lamented death of Dr. Peacock, has been conferred on Mr. Adams. By this very gratifying appointment, Mr. Adams is recalled to England from St. Andrews, in which university he has for a short time past held a professorship. The Lowndean Professorship was instituted about 110 years ago, as a combined professorship of astronomy and geometry-a term then synonymous with mathematics. The first three occupants were neither of them distinguished for the combination of the two kinds of knowledge; the fourth, Dr. Peacock, powerful in both, did not make their combination a pursuit. Mr. Adams, whose name is so remarkably connected with the application of mathematics to astronomy, has a claim to a chair thus named which no one can dispute. The Council have to announce the loss by death* of the Dean of Ely; A. Baily, Esq.; Captain Bate; Edw. Bury, Esq., Lieut. Burdon; Rev. H. H. Jones; P. Kernan, Esq.; P. Legh, Esq.; Admiral Owen; H. L. Pattinson, Esq.; Lieut. Raper, R.N.; J. Reeves, Esq.; R. Taylor, Esq. ARTHUR BAILY was born about 1787, and died July 8, 1858. He was the younger brother of Francis Baily, whose name can never be mentioned in this Society without a word in remembrance of services which can never be too fully acknowledged. He was associated with his brother on the Stock Exchange, and continued in business long after his brother retired. Many years ago he was a frequent attendant at our Meetings. Captain WILLIAM THORNTON BATE, R.N., was born in 1820; he became a Student at the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth in 1833, and remained there two years. At school he had always shown a disposition for fun and hardihood, and amongst his companions at the Royal Naval College he was usually the leader in their various games and diversions; yet he was not the less distinguished in his studies, being endowed with great natural talents. On leaving the Royal Naval College Mr. Bate was appointed midshipman to the Isis, the flagship of Rear-Admiral Warren, on the Cape of Good Hope and Coast of Africa station. He remained on this station for five years, where, in spite of every obstacle offered by a burning sun and unhealthy climate, he acquired those habits of activity and industry in the pursuit of his profession which enabled him to effect so much that was useful, and to gain such distinction in after-life. Mr. Bate was frequently selected for difficult service on boating expeditions. On one occasion, when his ship was sailing at a rapid rate in the Bight of Benin, a locality much infested by sharks, Bate jumped overboard without a moment's hesitation, and saved the life of a sailor who had fallen overboard. In 1841, soon after war had been declared with China, Mr. Bate was appointed mate of H.M. Ship Blenheim; when he was actively employed in all the operations against Canton. A detailed and well-written memoir of Captain Bate, by the Rev. John Baillie, has lately been published by Messrs. Longman, which contains so many characteristic traits of his disposition, and such a graphic account of his adventurous life, that we proceed to give some extracts from it. "The Blenheim had been lying some weeks off Canton, when one morning all hands were ordered to 'prepare to assault the town.' Situated on a plain which is swept on two sides by the river, and having in the rear a considerable mountain called the White Cloud Mountain, the city was commanded by certain forts occupying some three or four slightly elevated hills im * Since this was read, the Council have received with deep regret the news of the death of our eminent transatlantic associate, W. Cranch Bond, on the 29th January. mediately behind the town. The forts were occupied by Tartar troops, whilst the city itself, with its suburbs, containing a population of a million souls, was protected by a wall twentyfive feet thick at the base. Our own troops were a mere handful; but with the courage natural to Englishmen, the command was given to take the forts. The blue-jackets instantly landed; and, almost in the twinkling of an eye, they were scaling the heights. Bate was among the first to mount the breach; and, just as he had reached the summit, he was struck below the chin by a ball. Instantly his whole chest was covered with blood, but the wound did not prove serious. The gallant fellow pushed on, pistol in hand, and the next moment his pistol was struck by another ball which cut it in two." (Memoir, p. 24.) "The crisis was past. The 'braves' fled in precipitation, and the British force was in possession of the fort, since known as the Blue-jackets' Height." "Before the affair of Canton he had volunteered to Captain Collinson to be his assistant for the survey of the Chinese waters. The latter, having now obtained command of the Plover, at once secured Bate's services. His activity and energy,' writes Captain Collinson, were so conspicuous, that it was only by dint of great importunity that Sir Thomas Herbert, who had succeeded Sir F. Senhouse in the command of the Blenheim, consented to lose his services, permitting him to join my ship.'" (Memoir, p. 25.) And thus he entered upon that special line of service in which he was to spend his remaining years with a distinction which placed him confessedly in the very front rank of his profession. Mr. Bate was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in October 1841, for his gallantry in mounting the heights of Canton. The war, however, was not yet ended; and wherever there was a post of danger there the young lieutenant was sure to be found. "His ship had been despatched to the northern part of the Chusan Archipelago, to examine it preparatory to the movement of the fleet. On their arrival a party landed by two boats in a shallow creek, and had proceeded, with all but the boat-keepers, across a low level plain towards a small isolated hill, when leaving the others at the foot, Bate and Collinson went to the summit to look around. 'Suddenly,' writes the latter, I perceived him to run forward, at the same time drawing his sword; and I soon found he was chasing a Chinaman, who with sword and shield had been ensconced on the summit watching our proceedings. A horrid shout, however, distracted our attention from the individual; and on looking on the plain below we found the Chinese army drawn up in array to receive us. Nothing remained but a sharp retreat to the boats, from which we should have been cut off had it not been for the determined face which Bate, in command of the rear, maintained; keeping them in check by a cool, well-directed fire.' "The next morning, twenty-five in number, they went on shore; and, in the course of forty minutes, without a single casualty, dispersed the Chinese forces, killing their leader and twenty others, capturing their military chest, and setting fire to their junks. This success,' Captain Collinson adds, was mainly owing to the prompt manner in which Hall and Bate led their men along the plain.' 6 "Some weeks elapsed and another illustrative incident presented itself. It was at the assault at Chapoo. To the Plover,' writes Captain Collinson, was assigned the office of covering the landing of the troops; and, on Sir H. Gough leaving the beach, he accepted my tender of Lieutenant Bate's services as his aide-de-camp to keep up communication with the rear. Among the outward defences of the city were several horseshoe-shaped enclosures, whence the Chinese maintained a harassing fire. Supported by two men Bate made a rush at one of the en In closures, and was at once involved in a hand-to-hand conflict with the officer commanding it—a blue-button mandarin. the course of the struggle both parties fell to the ground, but Bate by his superior agility remained uppermost, and succeeded in disarming his antagonist and in making him prisoner. "A few minutes later a fresh achievement meets us. The troops were now at the gates of the city, but without any battering-train or field-piece to force them open. The commander, apprehensive that the Chinese might rally before any men could be brought to the front, was looking round on every side with anxiety, not knowing what to do, when, suddenly, Bate was seen sword in hand scaling the wall alone. The next moment he was on the summit; the Chinese, supposing him to be the leader of a party, precipitately abandoned the post; and the brave fellow, coolly descending on the other side, opened the gates to the troops. It seemed as if he bore a charmed life." (Memoir, p. 33.) In the spring of 1846 Bate returned as the Plover's senior lieutenant to England. Lieutenant Bate was not immediately employed in active service, he profited by this leisure to pursue professional studies, first at the Steam Factory at Woolwich and afterwards at the Royal Naval College. He was promoted to the rank of Commander in Feb. 1848, and soon afterwards appointed to command the Royalist, and resume the survey in the Chinese waters. Bate was most usefully engaged during the ensuing five years in surveying operations; his industry knew no bounds: as a specimen of his labour and skill it may be mentioned that he executed an elaborate hydrographic survey of the island of Palawan, three hundred miles long, with its harbours and adjacent waters, fixing all the mountains and prominent hills visible from the sea. Commander Bate naturally anticipated being promoted on his return to England after all these services, but in this he was disappointed, and the Admiralty sent him once more to the China station, in command of a small brig, the Bittern; and it was not until August 1856 that he obtained the command of the Actaon, a much larger and finer ship, in which he continued his surveys, and was also engaged in active warlike operations. In consequence of Yeh, the Chinese Imperial Commissioner, having refused full satisfaction for an insult offered to the British flag, it was resolved upon by our commander to seize the defences of the city of Canton. In these operations Bate bore a very conspicuous part; the Admiral, Sir Michael Seymour, writes with respect to the storming of the defences of Canton, "The way was most gallantly shown by Commander Bate, whom I observed alone waving an ensign on the top of the breach." Just at this period the intelligence of Bate's being promoted to the rank of Captain reached him. Captain Bate distinguished himself in command of the Macao-fort, which he held with three hundred men against all the attacks of the Chinese after the ships had retired lower down the Canton river. On the 28th December, 1857, Captain Bate wrote thus on board the Acteon: "We opened our fire at daybreak. I am just going off with the Admiral to the landing-place, which is about two miles to the eastward of the city. We stop out all night and advance early in the morning.' "At daylight the following morning the rocket-practice' gave place to a steady fire from a mortar-battery; and Bate's little party, now joined by the general and his staff, proceeded in the direction of the city wall. "In a hasty reconnoitre they found, some dozen yards in advance, a ditch or gorge forty or fifty yards broad. In the intervening space was a low earthen fence, surmounted by bunches of high reeds, which interrupted the view of the spot where the scaling-ladders were to be placed to mount the broken |