Nov. 16th I reported to the Admiralty in considerable detail.  On Dec. 4th I had an interview with Lord Minto (First Lord of the Admiralty) and Mr Wood.  They refused to sanction any reward to me.—­The following is a copy of the report of the Captain of the ‘Rainbow’ after her voyage to Antwerp:  ’Having had the command of the Rainbow steamer the two voyages between London and Antwerp, I have the pleasure to inform you that I am perfectly satisfied as to the correctness of the compasses, and feel quite certain they will continue so.  I took particular notice from land to land from our departure and found the bearings by compass to be exact.’”—­The following extracts from letters to his wife refer to the “Ironsides”:  on Oct. 28th 1838 he writes, “I worked up the observations so much as to see that the compass disturbance is not so great as in the ‘Rainbow’ (35 deg. instead of 50 deg.), but quite enough to make the vessel worthless; and that it is quite different in direction from that in the ’Rainbow’—­so that if they had stolen one of the ‘Rainbow’ correctors and put it into this ship it would have been much worse than before.”  And on Nov. 1st he writes, “On Wednesday I again went to the ship and tried small alterations in the correctors:  I am confident now that the thing is very near, but we were most abominably baffled by the sluggishness of the compass.”

“The University of London:—­On Jan. 6th I attended a sub-committee meeting on the minimum of acquirements for B.A. degree, and various meetings of the Senate.  On July 14th I intimated to Mr Spring Rice my wish to resign.  I had various correspondence, especially with Mr Lubbock, and on Dec. 13th I wrote to him on the necessity of stipends to Members of Senate.  The dissensions on religious examination became very strong.  I took a middle course, demanding examination in the languages and books, but absolutely refusing to claim any religious assent.  I expressed this to Dr Jerrard, the principal representative on the religious side, by calling on him to substitute the words ‘Recognition of Christian Literature’ for ’Recognition of Christian Religion’:  I addressed a printed letter to Lord Burlington (Chancellor) and the Members of the Senate, on this subject.

“Of private history:  In January I made a short excursion in Norfolk and Suffolk, and visited Prof.  Sedgwick at Norwich.  In April I paid a short visit to Mr Courtney at Sanderstead, with my wife.  On June 14th my son Hubert was born.  In September I went with my sister by Cambridge, &c., to Luddington, where I made much enquiry concerning my father and the family of Airy who had long been settled there.  We then visited various places in Yorkshire, and arrived at Brampton, near Chesterfield, where Mrs Smith, my wife’s mother, now resided.  And returned by Rugby.  I had much correspondence with my brother and for him about private pupils and a better church living.  I complained to the Bishop of Norwich about the mutilation of a celebrated monument in Playford Church by the incumbent and curate.”