Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/164

 140 HISTORY OF THE [1860-70 expense a telescope of aperture 9 inches from Messrs. Cooke, of York, sailed on 1862 April 26, with his wife and family, and instru- ments, and landed at Bombay on August 8. A letter to Piazzi Smyth ends with a postscript dated August n : " Leaving for Poonah to-morrow. All Well ! " This was followed by the news of his death on the i6th. And so in this tragical disaster ended an enterprise which had started with so great promise of success. The Society has always been proud that Her Majesty Queen Victoria had, on accession to the throne, graciously complied with the request that Her Majesty should become the Patroness of the Society. It is an indication of the widespread sympathy and anxiety on account of the illness of the Prince Consort, that the Council Meeting which had been called for 1861 December 13, was adjourned after the only business explicitly prescribed by the bye-laws had been transacted. The Prince died on the following day, and the Council met again on December 18 and drew up the address of condolence, which was submitted to the Society on 1862 January 10 for presentation to the Queen. The second year, 1861, of the decade began with an episode which roused strong feeling at the time. It related to the election of a new President to succeed Robert Main. In 1858 the Council had reported that it had been invited by the united request of five of the Fellows to discuss an alteration in the mode of electing the Officers and Council. The proposed change seemed to arise out of the opinion that the then existing method, which consisted in bringing to the vote a list prepared by the retiring Council, with individual liberty of substitution of any one name for any other, gave no opportunity of previous concert in the election of officers, except among those Fellows who happen to be thrown together by circumstances. The matter was referred to the next Council, and the result was that a Special General Meeting was held on 1858 June n, and alterations in the Bye-laws were enacted, by which the practice of submitting a list of Officers and Council for election, hitherto followed by the Council for convenience, was 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 the Council in December, were to be sub- mitted to the General Meeting in February : the common right of striking out any of those names and substituting others remaining unaltered. The lists were to be circulated as soon after the meeting of Council in December as could be conveniently done. The effect of the change was frankly described (by the Council which retired in 1859 February) as being that a much longer time