posing the railway to be in
tunnel. On May 13th I, with Mr Stephenson, had an interview at the
Admiralty with Lord Ellenborough and Sir George Cockburn. The Earl
appeared willing to relax in his scruples about allowing a railway
through the Park, when Sir George Cockburn made a most solemn protest
against it, on the ground of danger to an institution of such
importance as the Observatory. I have no doubt that this protest of
Sir George Cockburn's really determined the Government. On June 10th I
was informed that the Government refused their consent. After this the
South Eastern Railway Company adopted the line through Tranquil
Vale.--In consequence of the defective state of Paramatta Observatory
I had written to Sir Robert Peel on April 16th raising the question of
a General Superintending Board for Colonial Observatories: and on June
27th I saw Mr Gladstone at the Colonial Office to enquire about the
possibility of establishing local Boards. On June 29th a general plan
was settled, but it never came to anything.--Forty volumes of the
Observatory MSS. were bound--an important beginning.--Deep-sunk
thermometers were prepared by Prof. Forbes.--On June 22nd Sir Robert
Inglis procured an Order of the House of Commons for printing a paper
of Sir James South's, ostensibly on the effects of a railway passing
through Greenwich Park, but really attacking almost everything that I
did in the Observatory. I replied to this on July 21st by a letter in
the Athenaeum addressed to Sir Robert Inglis, in terms so strong and
so well supported that Sir James South was effectually silenced." The
following extract from a letter of Airy's to the Earl of Rosse, dated
Dec. 15th 1846, will shew how pronounced the quarrel between Airy and
South had become in consequence of the above-mentioned attack and
previous differences: "After the public exposure which his conduct in
the last summer compelled me to make, I certainly cannot meet him on
equal terms, and desire not to meet him at all." (Ed.).--"In the
Mag. and Met. Department, I was constantly engaged with Mr Charles
Brooke in the preparation and mounting of the self-registering
instruments, and the chemical arrangements for their use, to the end
of the year. With Mr Ronalds I was similarly engaged: but I had the
greatest difficulty in transacting business with him, from his
unpractical habits.--The equipment of the Liverpool Observatory, under
me, was still going on: I introduced the use of Sie