“The engrossing subject of this year was the discovery of Neptune.  As I have said (1845) I obtained no answer from Adams to a letter of enquiry.  Beginning with June 26th of 1846 I had correspondence of a satisfactory character with Le Verrier, who had taken up the subject of the disturbance of Uranus, and arrived at conclusions not very different from those of Adams.  I wrote from Ely on July 9th to Challis, begging him, as in possession of the largest telescope in England, to sweep for the planet, and suggesting a plan.  I received information of its recognition by Galle, when I was visiting Hansen at Gotha.  For further official history, see my communications to the Royal Astronomical Society, and for private history see the papers in the Royal Observatory.  I was abused most savagely both by English and French.”

The Report to the Visitors contains an interesting account of the Great Lunar Reductions, from which the following passage is extracted:  “Of the Third Section, containing the comparison of Observed Places with Tabular Places, three sheets are printed, from 1750 to 1756.  This comparison, it is to be observed, does not contain a simple comparison of places, but contains also the coefficients of the various changes in the moon’s place depending on changes in the elements....  The process for the correction of the elements by means of these comparisons is now going on:  and the extent of this work, even after so much has been prepared, almost exceeds belief.  For the longitude, ten columns are added in groups, formed in thirteen different ways, each different way having on the average about nine hundred groups.  For the ecliptic polar distance, five columns are added in groups, formed in seven different ways, each different way having on the average about nine hundred groups.  Thus it will appear that there are not fewer than 150,000 additions of columns of figures.  This part of the work is not only completed but is verified, so that the books of comparison of Observed and Tabular Places are, as regards this work, completely cleared out.  The next step is to take the means of these groups, a process which is now in hand:  it will be followed by the formation and solution of the equations on which the corrections of the elements depend.”

The following remarks, extracted from the Report to the Visitors, with respect to the instrumental equipment of the Observatory, embody the views of the Astronomer Royal at this time:  “The utmost change, which I contemplate as likely to occur in many years, in regard to our meridional instruments, is the substitution of instruments of the same class carrying telescopes of larger aperture.  The only instrument which, as I think, may possibly be called for by the demands of the astronomer or the astronomical public, is a telescope of the largest size, for the observation of faint nebulae and minute double stars.  Whether the addition of such an instrument to our apparatus would be an advantage, is, in my opinion, not free from doubt.  The line of conduct for the Observatory is sufficiently well traced; there can be no doubt that our primary objects ought to be the accurate determination of places of the fundamental Stars, the Sun, the Planets, and, above all, the Moon.  Any addition whatever to our powers or our instrumental luxuries, which should tend to withdraw our energies from these objects, would be a misfortune to the Observatory.”