“Amongst miscellaneous matters, in March I had some correspondence with the Duke of Northumberland about the Cauchaix Telescope.  In August I had to announce to him that the flint-lens had been a little shattered in Cauchaix’s shop and required regrinding:  finally on Dec. 17th I announced its arrival at Cambridge.—­In the Planetary Reductions, I find that I employed one computer (Glaisher) for 34 weeks.—­In November the Lalande Medal was awarded to me by the French Institut, and Mr Pentland conveyed it to me in December.—­On March 14th I gave the Cambridge Philosophical Society a Paper, ’Continuation of researches into the value of Jupiter’s Mass.’  On Apr. 14th, ’On the Latitude of Cambridge Observatory.’  On June 13th, ’On the position of the Ecliptic,’ and ‘On the Solar Eclipse of 1833,’ to the Royal Astronomical Society.  On Nov. 24th, ’On Computing the Diffraction of an Object Glass,’ to the Cambridge Society.  And on Dec. 3rd, ’On the Calculation of Perturbations,’ to the Nautical Almanac:  this Paper was written at Keswick between Aug. 22nd and 29th.—­I also furnished Mr Sheepshanks with investigations regarding the form of the pivots of the Cape Circle.”

1835

“On Jan. 9th 1835 I was elected correspondent of the French Academy; and on Jan. 26th Mr Pentland sent me L12. 6s., the balance of the proceeds of the Lalande Medal Fund.—­I prepared my Paper for Smith’s Prizes, and joined in the Examination as usual.

“There had been a very sudden change of Administration, and Sir R. Peel was now Prime Minister as First Lord of the Treasury, and Lord Lyndhurst was Lord Chancellor.  On Jan. 19th I wrote to Lord Lyndhurst, asking him for a Suffolk living for my brother William, which he declined to give, though he remembered my application some years later.  Whether my application led to the favour which I shortly received from the Government, I do not know.  But, in dining with the Duke of Sussex in the last year, I had been introduced to Sir R. Peel, and he had conversed with me a long time, and appeared to have heard favourably of me.  On Feb. 17th he wrote to me an autograph letter offering a pension of L300 per annum, with no terms of any kind, and allowing it to be settled if I should think fit on my wife.  I wrote on Feb. 18th accepting it for my wife.  In a few days the matter went through the formal steps, and Mr Whewell and Mr Sheepshanks were nominated trustees for my wife.  The subject came before Parliament, by the Whig Party vindicating their own propriety in having offered me the office of Astronomer Royal in the preceding year; and Spring Rice’s letter then written to me was published in the Times, &c.”

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The correspondence relating to the pension above-mentioned is given below, and appears to be of interest, both as conveying in very felicitous terms the opinion of a very eminent statesman on the general subject of such pensions, and as a most convincing proof of the lofty position in Science which the subject of this Memoir had then attained.