4C4 THIRD REPORT 1833. 



The breach was now complete, and the subsequent letters are 

 filled with complahits of the conduct of the committee ; and 

 Flamsteed eventually commenced legal proceedings against Sir 

 Isaac Newton for the restitution of the MSS. But it is prin- 

 cipally on Dr. Halley that the force of his indignation falls ; 

 and if the circumstances referred to in the letters be correct, 

 (of which there does not seem to be any doubt, although the 

 motives of the parties may have been misinterpreted,) Flam- 

 steed had just cause for complaint and redress ; for he charges 

 Halley, in direct terms, with having surreptitiously purloined 

 the manuscript Observations and Catalogue deposited with the 

 committee, and with having published them in a garbled and 

 incorrect manner. It is acknowledged that the seals were 

 broken ; but it is pretended that this was done by an order 

 from the Secretary of State, for what purpose, however, does 

 not appear. It is notorious that Halley did publish an edition 

 of Flamsteed's Catalogue, and extracts from his Observations, 

 in the year 1712, which is the work alluded to by Flamsteed; 

 and as Flamsteed could never recover back the MSS., there 

 is no doubt that these were the documents made use of. In 

 fact, the matter is not disguised by Halley, in the preface. 

 Flamsteed remonstrated against this conduct ; calls Halley " a 

 malicious thief," and bestows on him other opprobrious epithets. 

 In the year 1716, Flamsteed obtained an order from the King 

 to have the remaining (unsold) copies of this work delivered up 

 to him, for the purpose of being destroyed : 300 copies were 

 consequently sent to the Observatory, which, he says, he " sa- 

 crificed to truth"; and he appears to have missed no oppor- 

 tunity of destroying every copy that came into his possession. 

 Such is Flamsteed's history of the edition of 1712. 



During all this time, no further progress had been made in 

 printing the Observations. The first volume only was com- 

 pleted, but this did not contain any of the observations made 

 with the mural arc at Greenwich ; the second, which was to 

 commence with those observations, was not yet begun. Flam- 

 steed, however, had printed, for private circulation only, a cor- 

 rect copy of his Catalogue of Stars, to counteract the effect of 

 Ilalley's spurious edition ; but no steps had been taken towards 

 forwarding the main work, which had now lain dormant upwards 

 of ten years, and which was much increased by the numerous 

 observations made during that period. At length, not being 

 able to regain possession of the MSS., he was obliged to copy 

 them again from the original entries, which was a great trouble 

 and expense to him; and towards the end of the year 1717, 

 he sent the first sheet of the second volume to the press ; re- 



