METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AT SEA. (Hansard, 15 August 1853)

§ MR. G. A. HAMILTON

, in rising to ask the right hon. Baronet the First Lord 1721 of the Admiralty, in reference to Parliamentary Paper, No. 115, of Session 1853, and to the communication made by Lieutenant Maury to the Secretary of the United States Navy, and of the conference suggested in the letter of the Secretary of the Treasury, of December 16, and of Mr. Ingersoll, of March 7, whether any such conference had yet been held, and whether any steps had been taken with a view to establish a uniform and accurate system of recording meteorological and other observations at sea, said, that as the subject was one of great importance, he hoped he might be permitted to make a short explanatory statement. A most interesting series of papers had been presented, by command of Her Majesty, in March last, respecting a proposed plan for making meteorological and hydrographical observations at sea, and respecting which the Government of the United States had evinced a great interest. It appeared, as far as regarded the United States, to have originated in the presenting by Her Majesty's Government to the Government of the United States, in November, 1851, of a volume containing Sir John Burgoyne's instructions for taking meteorological observations at the principal foreign stations of the Royal Engineers. This had elicited a letter from Mr. Lawrence, the Ambassador from the United States, to Earl Granville, dated February 17, 1852, calling attention to a plan of Lieutenant Maury, of the National Observatory, Washington, for establishing a universal system of meteorological observations, and enclosing a letter from Mr. Webster, requesting the co-operation of the British Government. It was impossible to read the able letters of Lieutenant Maury without being deeply impressed with the importance of the subject. That officer stated, truly, that all the great interests of States and the well-being of the whole human family were to be advanced by increase of knowledge touching the dynamical laws of the atmosphere, and the distribution through it over the surface of our planet of electricity, heat, and moisture. For the fruits of his labour the husbandman was dependent upon atmospherical conditions. The subject, therefore, he would point out to the House, was one of high scientific interest, and also of the greatest national, industrial, and practical import. At the present time more than 1,000 vessels connected with the United States had made and recorded observations according to a prescribed form. After various communications during the last year 1722 between the Foreign Office, the American Minister, the Admiralty, the Board of Trade, and the Royal Society, it had been suggested by Mr. Ingersoll that a conference should be held with Lieutenant Maury, in conformity with the authority given him by the Secretary of the Navy of the United States, in order that some arrangement might be made that the Governments of the principal maritime nations should undertake, conjointly, and in co-operation, a system of meteorological observations, to be made at sea in all ships in the naval service of these several nations, to be participated in by the merchant service. He would take that opportunity of stating that Lieutenant Maury was now in this country. He (Mr. Hamilton) had to ask, therefore, whether any such conference had been held, and whether any steps had been taken, arising out of these papers, to establish a uniform and accurate system of making and recording meteorological and other observations at sea?