Pièce 40 - Letter from John Herschel

4 pp

They must give a report to the British Association outlining the history of their activities as the Committee for the magnetic expeditions and observatories, and a conclusion regarding the 'actual state of the whole affair'. Has WW or Peacock a letter from Spring Rice or document, 'authorising us to report that Govt. will bear the whole expense, and that in consequence the grant of the Br. Assoc. will not be needed'. Conversely do they need a continuation of that grant or an increase of it. JH will draw up the report as long as WW and Peacock correct it. He is fed up with the whole business: 'The affair has eaten up a year of my life and thrown me back in all my projects, and in some irreversibly'.