Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/82

 64 HISTORY OF THE [1830-40 to the King), who, though not exactly a scientific man, had de- feated Sir John Herschel in a contest for the Chair of the Royal Society, offered in 1831 June to assist the R.A.S. to procure rooms in Somerset House in the Strand. The offer was, of course, gladly accepted, but nothing happened for a long time. A plan was suggested for taking a house jointly with two other societies ; and on the other hand the Chirurgical Society, who were about to change their residence, wanted to know if the R.A.S. would continue to take rooms with them. Baily heard in 1832 from the Council of the Royal Society that " there was hope of the matter being accomplished without any further interference on the part of H.R.H." At last, in 1834 April, the Duke forwarded a letter from the Treasury, stating that there was every disposition to comply with the suggestion, that certain parts of the building lately occupied by the Exchequer offices should be appropriated for the R.A.S., but that the temporary use of them would still be required for a short time. Finally, Baily as President was able to announce to the Council in the following November that he had taken possession of three rooms on the Mezzanine floor of Somerset House (between the principal and ground floors) and four rooms on the ground floor. At the Annual Meeting in 1835 February the Council were able to greet the Society in their new home (which they were to occupy for exactly forty years), and to announce that arrangements had been made for the daily attendance of the Assistant Secretary from one till four o'clock. An additional room * was handed over to the Society in 1836 November. The library, which had hitherto been " literally inaccessible," now for the first time became of use to the Fellows. De Morgan had in 1829 offered his services to arrange and catalogue the books and manuscripts belonging to the Society, a task for which his love of books and strong appreciation of the value of accurate biblio- graphy fitted him in an unusual degree. This work was continued by Mr. Epps, and a catalogue was first published in 1838. A beginning had already been made towards the valuable collection of manuscripts which now form a very important part of the library. The original observations of Halley only existed in MS. at the Greenwich Observatory. In 1832, on the representa- tion of Baily, the Admiralty ordered a copy of these observations to be made and presented to the Society. This copy was care- fully collated with the original, and this interesting series of old observations were thus made more accessible.f Collated copies of f An Account of Halley's observations was given by Baily in volume 8 of the Memoirs (pp. 169-190), and some particulars about his instruments by Rigaud (9, 205-227). Bigaud had in 1832 published Bradley's Miscellaneous Works, including many observations not printed before.
 * " The West room on the Mezzanine floor above the meeting room."