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JWL is grateful to WW for his 'hints': 'with respect to the first not having the paper before me I do not recollect sufficient to give an answer, I should have liked to know whether the argument is conclusive to you'. The Council have appointed a committee to consider the printing of some observations the Admiralty have sent. JWL has 'requested Capt. Beaufort [Francis Beaufort] to get from some of the places a specification of the manner in which the time was obtained and of the zero point from which the heights are reckoned'. Could WW tell Mr Lodge that the Library committee will meet on August the 2nd.

Written from The Admiralty.

Admy. - Sends a paper by Capt. James Ross concerning the tides at the Falkland Islands.

Admy - Commends WW for his defence of Isaac Newton [in the wake of Francis Baily's Life of Flamsteed]: 'a character which is one of the most brilliant spots in the national Glory'.

WW is perhaps aware that Mr Stratford [William Stratford] has been campaigning to get appointed to the office of superintendent of the Nautical Almanac, and is supported by Capt. Beaufort [Francis Beaufort]. Beaufort did not think that JWL should even consider the job. In response JWL wrote to him to assure him that he did 'you could hardly suppose that I should have felt objection to become the successor of such men as Dr. Maskelyne Dr. Young and Mr Pond'. However he learnt last night that Stratford was appointed to the post: 'he has not the mathematical knowledge of a second year man at Cambridge'. Beaufort has given JWL access to all the Admiralty Charts.

JWL has received WW's letter plus Quetelet's [Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet] papers. He is sorry that WW cannot attend the Committee and thinks his suggestions excellent - reports on papers and a yearly report. If we had an exact copy of the constitutions of all Foreign Societies, we could graft the best aspect of each onto ours. The Council of the Royal Society have given him permission to employ Mr Walker to draw a map of the world under his direction to chart the progress of the tide, unfortunately 'Capt. Beaufort [Francis Beaufort] will not allow him to consult the Charts at the admiralty for fear he shall trouble them', so he has had to use books of sailing directions. Regarding WW's problem in biometry, JWL does not think 'we possess sufficient information with respect to the ages at which marriages take place and the intervals which lapse after marriage before children are born to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion with respect to the influence a general retardation of marriages would have upon the increase of the population'. Mr Dessiou [Joseph Foss Dessiou] has nearly completed his work on the tides and JWL has seen some of his results. He has begun work on a Physical Astronomy paper.

Admy - WW should write as he proposed to the dockyards.

A photomechanical copy of a letter in which FitzRoy discusses the difficulty in obtaining correct observations of tides, requests him to look at the appendix to , and notes that Professor Whewell has adopted FitzRoy's "washing tub theory" to a great extent, a change from his previous views.

Concerning expenses for the expedition to measure tides.

Admy. - Any papers WW sent to Capt. O. Stanley via the Admiralty would have been forwarded - 'but we keep no account of what merely passes through our hands - Your paper on the tides of the Pacific would be highly interesting to him'.

Admy. - Sends an extract of a letter concerning tides. Capt. Graves wants to continue with his attention to the subject of tides.

Admy. - Thanks WW for the tide papers - 'acceptable presents to many naval men'. FB hopes WW will collect and arrange all his papers on this subject into one volume.