So, too, his regulation of his subordinates was, especially in his earlier days, despotic in the extreme--despotic to an extent which would scarcely be tolerated in the present day, and which was the cause of not a little serious suffering to some of his staff, whom, at that time, he looked upon in the true spirit of Pond, as mere mechanical 'drudges.' For thirty-five years of his administration the salaries of his assistants remained discreditably low, and his treatment of the supernumerary members of his staff would now probably be characterized as 'remorseless sweating.' The unfortunate boys who carried out the computations of the great lunar reductions were kept at their desks from eight in the morning till eight at night, without the slightest intermission, except an hour at midday. As an example of the extreme detail of the oversight which he exercised over his assistants, it may be mentioned that he drew up for each one of those who took part in the Harton Colliery experiment, instructions, telling them by what trains to travel, where to change, and so forth, with the same minuteness that one might for a child who was taking his first journey alone; and he himself packed up soap and towels with the instruments, lest his astronomers should find themselves, in Co. Durham, out of reach of these necessaries of civilization. A regime so essentially personal may indeed have been necessary after Pond's administration, and to give the Observatory a fresh start. But it would not have been to the advantage of the Observatory, had it become a permanent feature of its administration, as it militated--was almost avowedly intended to militate--against the growth of real zeal and intelligence in the staff, and necessarily occasioned labour and discomfort out of proportion to the results obtained. Fortunately, in Airy's later years, the extension of the work of the Observatory, a slight failing in his own powers, and the efforts he was devoting to the working out of the lunar theory, compelled him to relax something of that microscopic imperiousness which had been the chief characteristic of his rule for so long. Airy had, in the fullest degree, the true spirit of the public servant; his sense of duty to the State was very high. He was always ready to undertake any duty which he felt to be of public usefulness, and many of these he discharged without fee or reward.