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SAPIENTIA ET DOCTRINA STABILITAS

that the building should be erected in the Park, and should with
the Instrument be made as much as possible available for the pub-
lic benefit, the Subscribers agreed to consent to the arrangements
which the Park Committee proposed.

A suitable site in the public Park was selected, com-
manding a view of the Lake Horizon, and a small building
was completed within which the Equatorial, which had ar-
rived late in the Summer of 1855, was set up, and adjusted,
in the Spring of 1856. It was, thereafter, employed in frequent
observations of more or less importance, among others a leng-
thened series on Donati's Comet in 1858, in order to determine
the coordinates of its position in its orbit, and its varying aspects
at different points in its course, the results of which were given
to the Public. The want of a Transit instrument, and of a Sidereal
clock, together with a more commodious edifice, and a paid assist-
ant, made the work of precise determination of Right Ascension, and
Declination, Extremely difficult, and muc more arduous than it
would otherwise have been. Impressed with these considerations, the
subscribers took steps to have a Petition presented to Parliament for
aid in the efforts in which they were engaged. A Grant of $ 500.
was accordingly obtained in each of the two years 1860, and
1861, with the prospect of its continuance.

1860-61