Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/204

 176 HISTORY OF THE [1870-80 from Greenwich, but the opponents of an establishment of this kind were prepared to support an extension of the existing National Observatories. The spirit in which the discussion was conducted and the feeling that existed in the Council may be inferred from the fact that at the meeting in 1872 November, Mr. De la Rue, Colonel Strange, and Mr. Lockyer retired from the Council ; the first because he felt " that the opinion of the majority had diverged considerably from his own on various occasions " ; Colonel Strange, because he thought that certain members of the Council were incompetent and that these exercised an undue influence ; and Mr. Lockyer, because Mr. Proctor made repeated attacks on him in " certain- obscure prints," and for this reason he did not wish to sit at the Council table with him. The secession of these three Members did not restore harmony, but the factious spirit had full play in the selection of a recipient for the Gold Medal in the follow- ing February. At the Council meeting in November it was proposed by Professor Pritchard, who was strongly supported by Dr. Huggins, that Mr. Lockyer, M. Janssen, and Professor Respighi should have the medal jointly, in accordance with the Bye-law passed in 1871 June. Mr. E. B. Denison (afterwards Sir Edmund Beckett, Bart., and finally Lord Grimthorpe) proposed that Mr. Proctor should have the medal for his contributions to astronomical literature, especially his Charts of Stars and theories about their distribution, and his papers on the Transit of Venus. Other names were proposed as recipients, but the contest was mainly between the supporters of the three solar observers first named, and those of Mr. Proctor. Professor Pritchard withdrew the name of Respighi before the discussion, but at a later stage when he saw that there was much opposition to Mr. Lockyer he was not allowed to withdraw the name of that gentleman, otherwise M. Janssen would have got the medal. There was a decided opinion among certain influential members of the Council that Mr. Proctor's work, though very voluminous and painstaking, did not deserve this high recognition, and it was eventually decided that the Gold Medal should not be awarded in 1873. It seems possible that Proctor had been proposed merely to set up a candidate in opposition to Lockyer. An early opportunity for further dissension arose in the election of the Council in 1873 February, and on this occasion Colonel Strange was the avowed aggressor. The Council, according to custom, prepared a list of names to be submitted to the Society for election. A few days before the Annual Meeting a circular was issued to all the Fellows of the Society by Colonel Strange. In this he called attention to the recent resignations, which were not