I have frequently reflected on the proposal made by you of the honour of Knighthood to myself.  I am very grateful to you for the favourable opinion which you entertain in regard to my supposed claims to notice, and for the kindness with which you proposed publicly to express it.  But on consideration I am strongly impressed with the feeling that the conditions attached by established regulation to the conferring of such an honour would be unacceptable to me, and that the honour itself would in reality, under the circumstances of my family-establishment and in my social position, be an incumbrance to me.  And finally I have thought it best most respectfully, and with a full sense of the kindness of yourself and of the Queen’s Government towards me, to ask that the proposal might be deferred.

There is another direction in which a step might be made, affecting my personal position in a smaller degree, but not tending to incommode me, which I would ask leave to submit to your consideration.  It is, the definition of the Rank of the Astronomer Royal.  The singular character of the office removes it from ordinary rules of rank, and sometimes may produce a disagreeable contest of opinions.  The only offices of similar character corresponding in other conditions to that of the British Astronomer Royal are those of the Imperial Astronomers at Pulkowa (St Petersburg) and Paris.  In Russia, where every rank is clearly defined by that of military grade, the Imperial Astronomer has the rank of Major-General.  In France, the definition is less precise, but the present Imperial Astronomer has been created (as an attachment of rank to the office) a Senator of the Empire.

I am, dear Sir,
Your very faithful servant,
G.B.  AIRY.

The Rt Hon. Sir George C. Lewis, Bart.,
  &c. &c. &c.

Sir G. C. Lewis died before receiving this letter, and the letter was afterwards forwarded to Lord Palmerston.  Some correspondence followed between Lord Palmerston and Airy on the subject of attaching a definite rank to the office of Astronomer Royal, as proposed in the above letter.  But the Home Office (for various reasons set forth) stated that the suggestion could not be complied with, and the whole subject dropped.

1864

The following remarks are extracted from the Report of the Astronomer Royal to the Board of Visitors.—­“In a very heavy squall which occurred in the gale of December 2 of last year, the stay of the lofty iron pillar outside of the Park Rails, which carried our telegraph wires, gave way, and the pillar and the whole system of wires fell.”—­“An important alteration has been made in the Magnetic Observatory.  For several years past, various plans have been under consideration for preventing large changes of temperature in the room which contains the magnetic instruments.  At length I determined to excavate a subterraneous room or cellar under the original room.  The work was begun in the last