quiry. Beginning with June 26th of 1846 I had correspondence of a
satisfactory character with Le Verrier, who had taken up the subject
of the disturbance of Uranus, and arrived at conclusions not very
different from those of Adams. I wrote from Ely on July 9th to
Challis, begging him, as in possession of the largest telescope in
England, to sweep for the planet, and suggesting a plan. I received
information of its recognition by Galle, when I was visiting Hansen at
Gotha. For further official history, see my communications to the
Royal Astronomical Society, and for private history see the papers in
the Royal Observatory. I was abused most savagely both by English and
French."

The Report to the Visitors contains an interesting account of the
Great Lunar Reductions, from which the following passage is extracted:
"Of the Third Section, containing the comparison of Observed Places
with Tabular Places, three sheets are printed, from 1750 to 1756. This
comparison, it is to be observed, does not contain a simple comparison
of places, but contains also the coefficients of the various changes
in the moon's place depending on changes in the elements.... The
process for the correction of the elements by means of these
comparisons is now going on: and the extent of this work, even after
so much has been prepared, almost exceeds belief. For the longitude,
ten columns are added in groups, formed in thirteen different ways,
each different way having on the average about nine hundred
groups. For the ecliptic polar distance, five columns are added in
groups, formed in seven different ways, each different way having on
the average about nine hundred groups. Thus it will appear that there
are not fewer than 150,000 additions of columns of figures. This part
of the work is not only completed but is verified, so that the books
of comparison of Observed and Tabular Places are, as regards this
work, completely cleared out. The next step is to take the means of
these groups, a process which is now in hand: it will be followed by
the formation and solution of the equations on which the corrections
of the elements depend."

The following remarks, extracted from the Report to the Visitors, with
respect to the instrumental equipment of the Observatory, embody the
views of the Astronomer Royal at this time: "The utmost change, which
I contemplate as likely to occur in many years, in regard to our
meridional instruments, is the substitution of in