 Meanwhile, his letter to the Duke of Sussex, then (April 1836) president of the Royal Society, secured for the undertaking, the wide basis of the British dominions.The "Encyclopædia Britannica", Eleventh Edition, observes, "Thus that scientific conspiracy of nations which is one of the noblest fruits of modern civilization was by his exertions first successfully organized".However, earlier examples of international scientific cooperation exist, notably the 18th-century observations of the transits of Venus.