magnetical and meteorological apparatus:  and that the President of the British Association and the President of the Royal Society be requested to solicit the favourable consideration of Her Majesty’s Government to this subject,’ which was adopted.  In October the Admiralty expressed their willingness to grant a reward up to L500.  Mr Charles Brooke had written to me proposing a plan on Sept. 23rd, and he sent me his first register on Nov. 24th.  On Nov. 1st the Treasury informed the Admiralty that the Magnetic Observatories will be continued for a further period.

“The Railway Gauge Commission in this year was an important employment.  The Railways, which had begun with the Manchester and Liverpool Railway (followed by the London and Birmingham) had advanced over the country with some variation in their breadth of gauge.  The gauge of the Colchester Railway had been altered to suit that of the Cambridge Railway.  And finally there remained but two gauges:  the broad gauge (principally in the system allied with the Great Western Railway); and the narrow gauge (through the rest of England).  These came in contact at Gloucester, and were likely to come in contact at many other points—­to the enormous inconvenience of the public.  The Government determined to interfere, beginning with a Commission.  On July 3rd Mr Laing (then on the Board of Trade) rode to Greenwich, bearing a letter of introduction from Sir John Lefevre and a request from Lord Dalhousie (President of the Board of Trade) that I would act as second of a Royal Commission (Col.  Sir Frederick Smith, Airy, Prof.  Barlow).  I assented to this:  and very soon began a vigorous course of business.  On July 23rd and 24th I went with Prof.  Barlow and our Secretary to Bristol, Gloucester, and Birmingham:  on Dec. 17th I went on railway experiments to Didcot:  and on Dec. 29th to Jan. 2nd I went to York, with Prof.  Barlow and George Arthur Biddell, for railway experiments.  On Nov. 21st I finished a draft Report of the Railway Gauge Commission, which served in great measure as a basis for that adopted next year.

“Of private history:  I wrote to Lord Lyndhurst on Feb. 20th, requesting an exchange of the living to which he had presented my brother in Dec. 1844 for that of Swineshead:  to which he consented.—­On Jan. 29th I went with my wife on a visit to my uncle George Biddell, at Bradfield St George, near Bury.—­On June 9th I went into the mining district of Cornwall with George Arthur Biddell.—­From Aug. 25th to Sept. 26th I was travelling in France with my sister and my wife’s sister, Georgiana Smith.  I was well introduced, and the journey was interesting.—­On Oct. 29th my son Osmund was born.—­Mr F. Baily bequeathed to me L500, which realized L450.”

Here are some extracts from letters written to his wife relating to the visit to the Cornish mines, &c.—­

                                             PEARCE’S HOTEL, FALMOUTH,
                                        1845, June 12th, Thursday.