Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/99

 1830-40] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 81 difficulty with which the Treasurer had to contend, was the con- siderable amount of arrears of subscriptions which appeared in the accounts every year. In 1830 they amounted to 140, and they nearly always exceeded that sum, reaching 211 in 1839. There seems to have been a disinclination among the members of the Council to take drastic measures to put an end to this nuisance, although the Treasurer or the Finance Committee reported on it several times. King William IV. had consented to become the Patron of the Society in 1830, and Queen Victoria was pleased to accept the same position in 1837. Two distinguished ladies, Caroline Herschel, the indefatigable assistant of her brother, and Mary Somerville, author of a valuable book on the Mechanism of the Heavens, were elected Honorary Members in 1835 February. Among the benefactors of the Society, John Lee occupies one of the foremost places. He showed his attachment to it in 1831 October by requesting the Council to recommend a candidate for the vacant vicarage of Stone, near Aylesbury, of which he was the patron. The Council " having no candidate before them of known reputation for astronomical requirements," selected one of the applicants. Of more value to the Society was a gift from Lee in 1834 December of 100 as a nucleus of a fund for the benefit of widows or orphans of deceased Fellows. In 1836 April he offered the gift of the advowson of the living of Hartwell, Bucks, which was accepted.* A good beginning was thus made towards the formation of the Society's funded property. The period 1830-40 was on the whole a quiet period in the history of astronomy. As De Morgan said, " Astronomers had rather given over expecting anything very great in the future : they were inclined to think that nothing was left except to give the existing methods and results additional fulness and accuracy, facility, and neatness." f Considering that the search for a star with an appreciable annual parallax had at last been successful, one would think that many astronomers must have had more faith in the future of their science than De Morgan credited them with. Lee had wished it to be stated, that, if the Society should cease to exist, the advowson should go to the Royal Society. But he gave this up owing to legal difficulties, and merely expressed the hope that the Society, while it existed, would never alienate the advowson. But it was ultimately found desirable to dispose of it and the advowson of Stone (given in 1844) to Lee's heir for 700 in 1879. t De Morgan, Newton, his Friend and his Niece, p. 155. Airy, in his Autobiography (p. 168), writes in 1845 that the sleep of Astronomy was broken by the discovery of Astrsea.
 * The deed of this " Voluntary Grant " was not received till 1838 January.