In respect of the office of Astronomer Royal, I refer to the first Lord of the Treasury as Official Patron. In virtue of this relation I have the honour to lay before your Lordship the following statement, and to solicit your instructions thereon. For conducting with efficiency and with credit to the nation the institution which is entrusted to me, I have judged it proper to cultivate intimate relations with the principal Observatories of Europe, and in particular with the great Observatory founded by the Emperor of Russia at Pulkowa near St Petersburg. I have several times received Mr Struve, the Director of that Observatory, at Greenwich: and in the past summer I made a journey to St Petersburg for the purpose of seeing the Observatory of Pulkowa. Since my return from Russia, I have received a communication from Count Ouvaroff, Minister of Public Instruction in the Russian Empire, informing me that the Emperor of Russia desires to confer on me the decoration of Knight Commander in the second rank of the Order of St Stanislas. And I have the honour now to enquire of your Lordship whether it is permitted to me to accept from the Emperor of Russia this decoration. I have the honour to be, My Lord, Your Lordship's very obedient servant, G.B. AIRY. _The Rt Honble Lord John Russell, &c. &c. &c. First Lord of the Treasury_. * * * * * The answer was as follows: DOWNING STREET, _October 19, 1847_. SIR, I am desired by Lord John Russell to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, of the 14th inst. and to transmit to you the enclosed paper respecting Foreign Orders by which you will perceive that it would be contrary to the regulations to grant you the permission you desire. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, C.A. GREY. _G. B. Airy, Esq_. * * * * * The passage in the Regulations referred to above is quoted in the following letter to Count Ouvaroff: ROYAL OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH, _1847, Oct. 22_. SIR, Referring to your Excellency's letter of the 24 August/5 September, and to my answer of the 25th September, in which I expressed my sense of the high honor conferred on me by His Majesty the Emperor of Russia in offering me, through your Excellency, the Order of St Stanislas, and my pride in accepting it:--I beg leave further to acquaint you that I have thought it necessary to make enquiry of Lord John Russell, First Lord of Her Majesty's Treasury, as to my competency to accept this decoration from His Majesty the Emperor of Russia: and that his Lordship in reply has referred me to the following Regulation of the British Court;