mens's Chronometric
Governor for giving horary motion to an Equatoreal there. I have since
introduced the same principle in the Chronograph Barrel and the Great
Equatoreal at Greenwich: I consider it important.--On Feb. 13th I
received the Astronomical Society's Medal for the Planetary
Reductions.--In the University of London: At this time seriously began
the discussion whether there should be a compulsory examination in
matters bearing on religious subjects. After this there was no
peace.--For discovery of Comets three medals were awarded by
Schumacher and me: one to Peters, two to De Vico. A comet was seen by
Hind, and by no other observer: after correspondence, principally in
1848, the medal was refused to him.--With respect to the Railway Gauge
Commission: On Jan. 1st, in our experiments near York, the engine ran
off the rails. On Jan. 29th the Commissioners signed the Report, and
the business was concluded by the end of April. Our recommendation was
that the narrow gauge should be carried throughout. This was opposed
most violently by partisans of the broad gauge, and they had
sufficient influence in Parliament to prevent our recommendation from
being carried into effect. But the policy, even of the Great Western
Railway (in which the broad gauge originated), has supported our
views: the narrow gauge has been gradually substituted for the broad:
and the broad now (1872) scarcely exists.--On June 20th Lord Canning
enquired of me about makers for the clock in the Clock Tower of
Westminster Palace. I suggested Vulliamy, Dent, Whitehurst; and made
other suggestions: I had some correspondence with E. B. Denison, about
clocks.--I had much correspondence with Stephenson about the Tubular
Bridge over the Menai Straits. Stephenson afterwards spoke of my
assistance as having much supported him in this anxious work: on
Dec. 11th I was requested to make a Report, and to charge a fee as a
Civil Engineer; but I declined to do so. In January I went, with
George Arthur Biddell, to Portsmouth, to examine Lord Dundonald's
rotary engine as mounted in the 'Janus,' and made a Report on the same
to the Admiralty: and I made several subsequent Reports on the same
matter. The scheme was abandoned in the course of next year; the real
cause of failure, as I believe, was in the bad mounting in the ship.

"The engrossing subject of this year was the discovery of Neptune. As
I have said (1845) I obtained no answer from Adams to a letter of
en