G.B. AIRY.

_The Right Honourable
Sir G. C. Lewis, Bart.,
&c. &c. &c._

No intimation however was received that the fees would be remitted on
the present occasion, and after consideration the proposed Knighthood
was declined in the following letter:

ROYAL OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH, S.E.
_1863, April 15_.

DEAR SIR,

I have frequently reflected on the proposal made by you of the honour
of Knighthood to myself. I am very grateful to you for the favourable
opinion which you entertain in regard to my supposed claims to notice,
and for the kindness with which you proposed publicly to express
it. But on consideration I am strongly impressed with the feeling that
the conditions attached by established regulation to the conferring of
such an honour would be unacceptable to me, and that the honour itself
would in reality, under the circumstances of my family-establishment
and in my social position, be an incumbrance to me. And finally I have
thought it best most respectfully, and with a full sense of the
kindness of yourself and of the Queen's Government towards me, to ask
that the proposal might be deferred.

There is another direction in which a step might be made, affecting my
personal position in a smaller degree, but not tending to incommode
me, which I would ask leave to submit to your consideration. It is,
the definition of the Rank of the Astronomer Royal. The singular
character of the office removes it from ordinary rules of rank, and
sometimes may produce a disagreeable contest of opinions. The only
offices of similar character corresponding in other conditions to that
of the British Astronomer Royal are those of the Imperial Astronomers
at Pulkowa (St Petersburg) and Paris. In Russia, where every rank is
clearly defined by that of military grade, the Imperial Astronomer has
the rank of Major-General. In France, the definition is less precise,
but the present Imperial Astronomer has been created (as an attachment
of rank to the office) a Senator of the Empire.

I am, dear Sir,
Your very faithful servant,
G.B. AIRY.

_The Rt Hon. Sir George C. Lewis, Bart.,
&c. &c. &c._

Sir G. C. Lewis died before receiving this letter, and the letter was
afterwards forwarded to Lord Palmerston. Some correspondence followed
between Lord Palmerston and Airy on the subject of attaching a
defini