Is glad to find his love of astronomy has not forsaken him, was not able to visit him in Devizes, suggests a seven foot Newtonian reflector of his construction, and that he is happy to sell one, offers advice on making one, or to show his own in Slough.
RJ hopes WW received his sheets [see RJ to WW, 1 March 1845]: 'I find no fault with any of your practical views about poor laws - it is your theory of moral duties as obligatory on states in the same manner as on individuals that I can only take with considerable modifications'. RJ left John Herschel a great deal calmer - 'but no one unacquainted with his peculiar temperament' could imagine how much James South agitates him. Herschel 'had not been able even to look over his fathers papers quietly - we went through them and the result was compleatly satisfactory. The discovery by the 40 feet of the 7th satellite in particular is narrated in the original observation book and all the steps from doubt to certainty to triumph committed to paper in a way which was exceedingly interesting even to me and I hope Herschel will some day or other publish them certainly not however to carry out a battle with such a trumpery opponent as South. The letter to the Times was gone before I arrived'.