Mr. Herschel, in the name of the Astronomical Society of London, I present this medal to your illustrious aunt. In transmitting it to her, assure her that since the foundation of this Society, no one has been adjudged which has been earned by services such as hers. Convey to her our unfeigned regret that she is not resident amongst us; and join to it our wishes, nay our prayers, that as her former days have been glorious, so her future may be happy.[37] Extract from the Report of the Council of the Astronomical Society to the Annual Meeting, Feb. 13, 1835.[38] “Your Council has no small pleasure in recommending that the names of two ladies, distinguished in different walks of astronomy, be placed on the list of honorary members. On the propriety of such a step, in an astronomical point of view, there can be but one voice; and your Council is of opinion that the time is gone by when either feeling or prejudice, by whichever name it may be proper to call it, should be allowed to interfere with the payment of a well-earned tribute of respect. Your Council has hitherto felt that, whatever might be its own sentiment on the subject, or however able and willing it might be to defend such a measure, it had no right to place the name of a lady in a position the propriety of which might be contested, though upon what it might consider narrow grounds and false principles. But your Council has no fear that such a difference could now take place between any men whose opinion could avail to guide that of society at large; and, abandoning compliment on the one hand, and false delicacy on the other, submits, that while the tests of astronomical merit should in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to those of a man, the sex of the former should no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acknowledgment which might be held due to the latter. And your Council therefore recommends this meeting to add to the list of honorary members the names of Miss Caroline Herschel and Mrs. Somerville, of whose astronomical knowledge, and of the utility of the ends to which it has been applied, it is not necessary to recount the proofs....”[39] [Sidenote: 1828. _An Hon. Member of the R. A. Society._] _May 28th, 1828._ DEAR AUNT,— ... Before this reaches you, you will have got it [the medal]. Pray let me be well understood on one point. It was none of my doings. I resisted strenuously. Indeed, being in the situation I actually hold,[40] I could do no otherwise. The Society have done _well_. I think they might have done _better_, but my voice was neither asked nor listened to. I ought to mention that it became a matter of discussion at the _Royal_ Society whether one of the Royal medals for the year should not be adjudged to you, but the rule limiting the time within which those medals must be granted being precise, it could not be done without a violation of principle.