Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/67

 1830-40] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 51 should be again eligible until the expiration of one year from the termination of his office. This provision and the long delay in getting the Charter pro- duced an awkward situation. To save expense, South's name only had been mentioned in the Charter, and in a very prominent manner. It begins thus : Whereas Sir James South, of the Observatory, Kensington, in the county of Middlesex, Knight, has by his Petition, humbly represented unto us, that he, together with others of our loyal subjects, did, in the year 1820, form themselves into a Society. . . . And further on it is ordered : .... that the first members of the Council shall be elected within six calendar months after the date of this our Charter ; and that the said Sir James South shall be the first President of the said body politic and corporate, and shall continue such until the election as aforesaid. Before the Charter was ready, the time of the Annual General Meeting of the Society came round again (1831 February n). The draft of the Charter was read and approved, and Officers and Council were elected as usual. Although the unborn Charter said that South was to be the first President of the newly incor- porated Society, it also ordered that nobody should be President for three years in succession ; and Brinkley, Bishop of Cloyne, was accordingly elected President.* But it must have been felt soon after, that this election of a President and Council was of doubtful legality. The Charter was at last signed by the King on March 7.j On the igth the Council agreed to issue a circular, explaining that as doubts had arisen as to an informality in sum- moning a Special General Meeting for March u, no business had been transacted on that day ; but that another General Meeting would be held on April 6 to decide on the acceptance of the Charter, and in case of such acceptance to elect Council and determine on bye-laws. It was evidently a severe blow to South, that he was not to be the first President of the Royal Astronomical Society. He was present at two Council meetings in March, when Baily (in the absence of Brinkley) was in the Chair ; but he absented himself on April 6, when he got Stratford to announce that " he was desirous of retiring for the present year." As Barlow also wished on being appointed Bishop of Cloyne. It was said in Ireland that " he might thank his stars " for his promotion. t Printed at the beginning of volume 5 of the Memoirs ; also separately in 8vo in 1831 and several times, last in 1908.
 * Brinkley had vacated the Professorship of Astronomy at Dublin in 1827