The enclosed Report on the Smith's Prize Examination will be discussed
at the same time.
I will consider what is best to be done on the subject to which your
note refers, without delay. With many thanks,
I am,
Very faithfully yours,
H.W. COOKSON,
_The Astronomer Royal._
* * * * *
In this year certain Members of the Senate of the University of
Cambridge petitioned Parliament against the abolition of religious
declarations required of persons admitted to Fellowships or proceeding
to the degree of M.A. The document was sent to Airy for his signature,
and his reply was as follows:
ROYAL OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH,
LONDON, S.E.
_1868, March 18_.
MY DEAR SIR,
Though I sympathize to a great extent with the prayer of the petition
to Parliament which you sent to me yesterday, and assent to most of
the reasons, I do not attach my signature to it, for the following
considerations:
1. I understand, from the introductory clause, and from the
unqualified character of the phrase "any such measures" in the second
clause, that the petition objects to granting the M.
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