July 21st my Report on Wexford Harbour (in which I think I introduced important principles) was communicated.  One Report was made this year to the Government.—­In the matter of Saw Mills (which had begun in 1842), I had prepared a second set of plans in 1844, and in this year Mr Nasmyth made a very favourable report on my plan.  A machinist of the Chatham Dock Yard, Sylvester, was set to work (but not under my immediate command) to make a model:  and this produced so much delay as ultimately to ruin the design.—­On Jan. 1st I was engaged on my Paper ’On the flexure of a uniform bar, supported by equal pressures at equidistant points.’” (This was probably in connection with the support of Standards of Length, for the Commission.  Ed.).—­In June I attended the Meeting of the British Association at Cambridge, and on the 20th I gave a Lecture on Magnetism in the Senate House.  The following quotation relating to this Lecture is taken from a letter by Whewell to his wife (see Life of William Whewell by Mrs Stair Douglas):  “I did not go to the Senate House yesterday evening.  Airy was the performer, and appears to have outdone himself in his art of giving clearness and simplicity to the hardest and most complex subjects.  He kept the attention of his audience quite enchained for above two hours, talking about terrestrial magnetism.”—­On Nov. 29th I gave evidence before a Committee of the House of Commons on Dover Harbour Pier.

“With respect to the Magnetical and Meteorological Establishment, the transactions in this year were most important.  It had been understood that the Government establishments had been sanctioned twice for three-year periods, of which the second would expire at the end of 1845:  and it was a question with the scientific public whether they should be continued.  My own opinion was in favour of stopping the observations and carefully discussing them.  And I am convinced that this would have been best, except for the subsequent introduction of self-registering systems, in which I had so large a share.  There was much discussion and correspondence, and on June 7th the Board of Visitors resolved that ’In the opinion of the Visitors it is of the utmost importance that these observations should continue to be made on the most extensive scale which the interests of those sciences may require.’  The meeting of the British Association was held at Cambridge in June:  and one of the most important matters there was the Congress of Magnetic Philosophers, many of them foreigners.  It was resolved that the Magnetic Observatory at Greenwich be continued permanently.  At this meeting I proposed a resolution which has proved to be exceedingly important.  I had remarked the distress which the continuous two-hourly observations through the night produced to my Assistants, and determined if possible to remove it.  I therefore proposed ’That it is highly desirable to encourage by specific pecuniary reward the improvement of self-recording