effect) and the concentration of active power.  I made investigations of the velocity of the Galvanic Current.—­I was engaged on the preliminary enquiries and arrangements for the Deal Time Ball.—­With respect to the Westminster Clock; an angry paper was issued by Mr Vulliamy.  In October I expostulated with Denison about his conduct towards Sir Charles Barry:  on November 7th I resigned.—­On Feb. 11th I was elected President of the Royal Astronomical Society.—­In the Royal Institution I lectured on the Ancient Eclipses.—­On Dec. 15th I was elected to the Academy of Brussels.—­After preliminary correspondence with Sir W. Molesworth (First Commissioner of Works, &c.) and Sir Charles Barry (Architect of the Westminster Palace), I wrote, on May 14th, to Mr Gladstone about depositing the four Parliamentary Copies of Standards, at the Royal Observatory, the Royal Mint, the Royal Society, and within a wall of Westminster Palace.  Mr Gladstone assented on June 23rd.—­On Mar. 26th I wrote to Mr Gladstone, proposing to take advantage of the new copper coinage for introducing the decimal system.  I was always strenuous about preserving the Pound Sterling.  On May 10th I attended the Committee of the House of Commons on decimal coinage:  and in May and September I wrote letters to the Athenaeum on decimal coinage.—­I had always something on hand about Tides.  A special subject now was, the cry about intercepting the tidal waters of the Tyne by the formation of the Jarrow Docks, in Jarrow Slake; which fear I considered to be ridiculous.”

Of private history:  “From Jan. 15th to 24th I was at Playford.—­On Mar. 4th I went to Dover to try time-signals.—­From June 24th to Aug. 6th I was at Little Braithwaite near Keswick, where I had hired a house, and made expeditions with members of my family in all directions.  On July 28th I went, with my son Wilfrid, by Workington and Maryport to Rose Castle, the residence of Bishop Percy (the Bishop of Carlisle), and on to Carlisle and Newcastle, looking at various works, mines, &c.—­On Dec. 24th I went to Playford.”

1854

The chronograph Barrel-Apparatus for the American method of transits had been practically brought into use:  “I have only to add that this apparatus is now generally efficient.  It is troublesome in use; consuming much time in the galvanic preparations, the preparation of the paper, and the translation of the puncture-indications into figures.  But among the observers who use it there is but one opinion on its astronomical merits—­that, in freedom from personal equation and in general accuracy, it is very far superior to the observations by eye and ear.”—­The printing and publication of the Observations, which was always regarded by Airy as a matter of the first importance, had fallen into arrear:  “I stated in my last Report that the printing of the Observations for 1852 was scarcely commenced at the time of the last meeting of the Visitors.  For a long time the printing