Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy Part 6

You probably are aware that in a Resolution voted by the House of Commons in the last Session of Parliament, an opinion was expressed, that Pensions on the Civil List, ought not thereafter to be granted by the Crown excepting for the satisfaction of certain public claims, among which those resting on Scientific or Literary Eminence were especially mentioned.

I trust that no such Resolution would have been necessary to induce me as Minister of the Crown fully to recognize the justice of such claims, but I refer to the Resolution, as removing every impediment to a Communication of the nature of that which I am about to make to you.

In acting upon the Principle of the Resolution in so far as the Claims of Science are concerned, my _first_ address is made to you, and made directly, and without previous communication with any other person, because it is dictated exclusively by public considerations, and because there can be no advantage in or any motive for indirect communication.

I consider you to have the first claim on the Royal Favour which Eminence in those high Pursuits to which your life is devoted, can give, and I fear that the Emoluments attached to your appointment in the University of Cambridge are hardly sufficient to relieve you from anxiety as to the Future on account of those in whose welfare you are deeply interested.

The state of the Civil List would enable me to advise the King to grant a pension of three hundred pounds per annum, and if the offer be acceptable to you the Pension shall be granted either to Mrs Airy or yourself as you may prefer.

I beg you distinctly to understand that your acquiescence in this Proposal, will impose upon you no obligation personal or political in the slightest degree. I make it solely upon public grounds, and I ask you, by the acceptance of it, to permit the King to give some slight encouragement to Science, by proving to those who may be disposed to follow your bright Example, that Devotion to the highest Branches of Mathematical and Astronomical Knowledge shall not necessarily involve them in constant solicitude as to the future condition of those, for whom the application of the same Talents to more lucrative Pursuits would have ensured an ample Provision.

I have the honor to be, Sir, With true Respect and Esteem, Your faithful Servant, ROBERT PEEL.

_Mr Professor Airy, &c., &c., Cambridge_.

OBSERVATORY, CAMBRIDGE, _1835, Feb. 18_.

SIR,

I have the honor to acknowledge your letter of the 17th acquainting me with your intention of advising the King to grant a pension of _300_ per annum from the Civil List to me or Mrs Airy.

I trust you will believe that I am sensible of the flattering terms in which this offer is made, and deeply grateful for the considerate manner in which the princ.i.p.al arrangement is left to my choice, as well as for the freedom from engagement in which your offer leaves me. I beg to state that I most willingly accept the offer. I should prefer that the pension be settled on Mrs Airy (by which I understand that in case of her surviving me the pension would be continued to her during her life, or in the contrary event would cease with her life).

I wish that I may have the good fortune to prove to the world that I do not accept this offer without an implied engagement on my part. I beg leave again to thank you for your attention, and to a.s.sure you that the form in which it is conveyed makes it doubly acceptable.

With sincere respect I have the honor to be, Sir, Your very faithful Servant, G.B. AIRY.

_The Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart., First Lord of the Treasury, &c., &c._

WHITEHALL, _Feb. 19th 1835_.

SIR,

I will give immediate directions for the preparation of the Warrant settling the Pension on Mrs Airy--the effect of which will be, as you suppose, to grant the Pension to her for her life. I a.s.sure you I never gave an official order, which was accompanied with more satisfaction to myself than this.

I have the honor to be, Sir.

Your faithful Servant, ROBERT PEEL.

_Mr Professor Airy, &c., &c., Cambridge_.

"On March 18th 1835 I started (meeting Sheepshanks at Kingstown) for Ireland. We visited Dublin Observatory, and then went direct to Markree near Sligo, to see Mr Cooper's telescope (our princ.i.p.al object). We pa.s.sed on our return by Enniskillen and Ballyjamesduff, where my former pupil P. Morton was living, and returned on Apr. 3rd.--On Apr. 20th I was elected to the Royal Society, Edinburgh.--Apr. 22nd my wife wrote me from Edensor that her sister Florence was very ill: she died shortly after.--On May 4th I began lectures and finished on May 29th: there were 58 names.--My former pupil Guest asks my interest for the Recordership of Birmingham.--In June was circulated the Syndicate Report on the Observatory.--The date of the Preface to the 1834 Observations is June 16th.

"The Ministry had been again changed in the spring, and the Whigs were again in power. On June 11th Lord Auckland, who was again First Lord of the Admiralty (as last year), again wrote to me to offer me the office of Astronomer Royal, or to request my suggestions on the filling up of the office. On June 15th I wrote my first reply, and on June 17th wrote to accept it. On June 18th Lord Auckland acknowledges, and on June 22nd the King approved. Lord Auckland appointed to see me on Friday, June 23rd, but I was unwell. I had various correspondence with Lord Auckland, princ.i.p.ally about buildings, and had an appointment with him for August 13th. As Lord Auckland was just quitting office, to go to India, I was introduced to Mr Charles Wood, the Secretary of the Admiralty, with whom princ.i.p.ally the subsequent business was transacted. At this meeting Lord Auckland and Mr Wood expressed their feeling, that the Observatory had fallen into such a state of disrepute that the whole establishment ought to be cleared out. I represented that I could make it efficient with a good First a.s.sistant; and the other a.s.sistants were kept. But the establishment was in a queer state. The Royal Warrant under the Sign Manual was sent on August 11th. It was understood that my occupation of office would commence on October 1st, but repairs and alterations of buildings would make it impossible for me to reside at Greenwich before the end of the year. On Oct. 1st I went to the Observatory, and entered formally upon the office (though not residing for some time). Oct 7th is the date of my Official Instructions.

"I had made it a condition of accepting the office that the then First a.s.sistant should be removed, and accordingly I had the charge of seeking another. I determined to have a man who had taken a respectable Cambridge degree. I made enquiry first of Mr Bowstead (brother to the bishop) and Mr Steventon: at length, consulting Mr Hopkins (a well-known private tutor at Cambridge), he recommended to me Mr Robert Main, of Queens' College, with whom I corresponded in the month (princ.i.p.ally) of August, and whom on August 30th I nominated to the Admiralty. On Oct. 21st F.W. Simms, one of the a.s.sistants (who apparently had hoped for the office of First a.s.sistant, for which he was quite incompetent) resigned; and on Dec. 4th I appointed in his place Mr James Glaisher, who had been at Cambridge from the beginning of 1833, and on Dec. 10th the Admiralty approved.

"During this quarter of a year I was residing at Cambridge Observatory, visiting Greenwich once a week (at least for some time), the immediate superintendence of the Observatory being placed with Mr Main. I was however engaged in reforming the system of the Greenwich Observatory, and prepared and printed 30 skeleton forms for reductions of observations and other business. On Dec. 14th I resigned my Professorship to the Vice-Chancellor. But I continued the reduction of the observations, so that not a single figure was left to my successor: the last observations were those of Halley's Comet. The Preface to my 1835 Cambridge Observations is dated Aug. 22nd, 1836.

"In regard to the Northumberland Telescope, I had for some time been speculating on plans of mounting and enclosing the instrument, and had corresponded with Simms, A. Biddell, Cubitt, and others on the subject. On Apr. 24th Tulley the younger was endeavouring to adjust the object-gla.s.s. On May 31st I plainly asked the Duke of Northumberland whether he would defray the expense of the mounting and building. On June 4th he a.s.sented, and money was placed at a banker's to my order. I then proceeded in earnest: in the autumn the building was erected, and the dome was covered before the depth of winter. I continued in 1836 to superintend the mounting of the instrument.

"In regard to the Planetary Reductions: to July 11th J. Glaisher had been employed 27 weeks, and from July 11th to Jan. 16th, 1836, 25 weeks. Mr Spring Rice, when Chancellor of the Exchequer, had promised money, but no official minute had been made, and no money had been granted. On Aug. 21st I applied to Mr Baring (Secretary of the Treasury). After another letter he answered on Oct. 15th that he found no official minute. After writing to Vernon Harcourt and to Spring Rice, the matter was arranged: my outlay was refunded, and another sum granted.--In regard to Groombridge's Observations, I find that on Dec. 16th certain trial reductions had been made under my direction by J. Glaisher.--I had attempted some optical experiments in the summer, especially on the polarization of sky-light; but had been too busy with the Observatory to continue them.

"In August my wife was in a critical state of health.--In December I received information regarding merchant ships' chronometers, for which I had applied to Mr Charles Parker of Liverpool.--On Dec. 8th Mr Spring Rice and Lord John Russell offered me knighthood, but I declined it.--On July 23rd I went into Suffolk with my wife's sisters Elizabeth and Georgiana, and returned on August 3rd: this was all the holiday that I got in this year.--On the 14th of August I saw Mr Taylor, the Admiralty Civil Architect in London, and the extension of buildings at Greenwich Observatory was arranged.--I made various journeys to Greenwich, and on Dec. 17th, having sent off our furniture, we all quitted the Cambridge Observatory, and stayed for some days at the house of Miss Sheepshanks.

"Thus ended a busy and anxious year."

With reference to the offer of knighthood above-mentioned, Airy's reply is characteristic, and the short correspondence relating to it is therefore inserted.--The offer itself is an additional proof of the high estimation in which he stood at this time.

DOWNING STREET, _Dec. 8th 1835_.

MY DEAR SIR,

I have been in communication with my colleague Lord John Russell which has made me feel rather anxious to have the pleasure of seeing you, but on second thoughts it has occurred to me that the subject of my communication would render it more satisfactory to you to receive a letter than to pay a visit.

In testimony of the respect which is felt for your character and acquirements, there would be every disposition to recommend you to His Majesty to receive the distinction of Knighthood. I am quite aware that to you individually this may be a matter of small concern, but to the scientific world in general it will not be indifferent, and to foreign countries it will mark the consideration felt for you personally as well as for the position which you occupy among your learned contemporaries.

From a knowledge of the respect and esteem which I feel for you Lord John Russell has wished that the communication should be made through me rather than through any person who had not the pleasure of your acquaintance.

Pray let me hear from you and believe me my dear Sir, with compliments to Mrs Airy,

Very truly yours, T. SPRING RICE.

P.S.--It may be right to add that when a t.i.tle of honor is conferred on grounds like those which apply to your case, no fees or charges of any kind would be payable.

OBSERVATORY, CAMBRIDGE, _1835, Dec. 10th_.

MY DEAR SIR,

I beg to acknowledge your letter of the 8th, which I have received at this place, conveying to me an intimation of the wish of His Majesty's Ministers to recommend me to the King for the honor of Knighthood.

I beg to a.s.sure you that I am most sensible to the liberality which I have experienced from the Government in other as well as in pecuniary matters, and that I am very highly gratified by the consideration (undeserved by me, I fear) which they have displayed in the present instance. And if I now request permission to decline the honor offered to me, I trust I may make it fully understood that it is not because I value it lightly or because I am not anxious to receive honors from such a source.

The unalterable custom of this country has attached a certain degree of light consideration to t.i.tles of honor which are not supported by considerable fortune; or at least, it calls for the display of such an establishment as may not be conveniently supported by even a comfortable income. The provision attached to my official situation, and the liberality of the King towards one of the members of my family, have placed me in a position of great comfort. These circ.u.mstances however have bound me to consider myself as the devoted servant of the country, and to debar myself from efforts to increase my fortune which might otherwise have been open to me. I do not look forward therefore to any material increase of income, and that which I enjoy at present is hardly sufficient, in my opinion, to support respectably the honor which you and Lord John Russell have proposed to confer upon me. For this reason only I beg leave most respectfully to decline the honor of Knighthood at the present time.

I have only to add that my services will always be at the command of the Government in any scientific subject in which I can be of the smallest use.

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

_The Right Honorable T. Spring Rice_.