52 Memoir of the late Francis Baily, Esq., F.R.S.^ fifc. 



the commencement of the nineteenth century are remarkable 

 for the small amount of scientific movement going on in this 

 country, especially in its more exact departments. It is not 

 that individuals were not here and there busied in extending 

 the bounds of science even in these, but they met with little 

 sympathy. Their excursions were limited by the general re- 

 striction of view which had begun to prevail, and bj' a sense 

 of loneliness and desertion (if I may use such an expression) 

 arising from that want of sympathy. Mathematics were at 

 the last gasp, and astronomy nearly so ; I mean in those mem- 

 bers of its frame which depend upon precise measurement and 

 systematic calculation. The chilling torpor of routine had 

 begun to spread itself largely over all those branches of science 

 which wanted the excitement of experimental research. I 

 know that I have been blamed on a former occasion for ex- 

 pressing this opinion, but it is not the less true, though we may 

 now happily congratulate ourselves that this inanimate period 

 has been succeeded by one of unexampled activity. To break 

 the dangerous repose of such a state, and to enforce that ex- 

 ertion which is necessary to healthy life, there is always need 

 of some degree of friendly violence, which, if administered 

 without rudeness, and in a kindly spirit, leads at length the 

 revived patient to bless the disturbing hand, however the 

 urgency of its application might for a moment irritate. It is 

 in this light that we are to regard the earnest and somewhat 

 warm remonstrances of Mr. Baily on the deficiencies which 

 had long begun to be perceived and felt in the Nautical Al- 

 manac, in its capacity of an astronomical ephemeris. 



The subject once moved gave rise to a great deal of discus- 

 sion, from more than one quarter, which was from time to 

 time renewed for some years; but as I have no intention to 

 make this notice an occasion of dilating on any matter of a 

 controversial nature, I shall merely add that, on the dissolu- 

 tion of the late Board of Longitude, followed almost imme- 

 diately by the death of Dr. Young, on whom the charge of its 

 superintendence rested (the new Berlin Ephemeris, by Encke, 

 having also recently appeared, in which many of the principal 

 improvements contended for were adopted), it seemed fitting 

 to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to place unre- 

 servedly before the Astronomical Society the subject of a com- 

 plete revision and remodelling of that great national work — a 

 high proof of confidence, which speaks volumes for the good 

 sense, prudence, and activity which had continued to pervade 

 its administration during the ten years which had now elapsed 

 since its first institution. 



It is hardly necessary to add that this important business 



