201 



Art. XVn. ASTRONOMICAL AND NAUTICAL COL- 

 LECTIONS. No. IX. 



i. A Reply to Mr. Baily's Remarks on the Nautical 

 Almanac. 



In a volume of Astronomical Tables for the year 1822, which 

 has been privately printed, but extensively circulated, for the- 

 convenience of practical astronomers, Mr. Bailv has introduced 

 several severe remarks on the Nautical Almanac, which have 

 been considered by those who are better acquainted with Mr. 

 Baily's general merits, than with the actual state of the facts in 

 question, as requiring some confutation or explanation. 



1. "Perhaps," says Mr. Bally, in his preface, " there arc 

 many practical astronomers, who will agree with me in think- 

 ing, that some of these tables would form a valuable addition 

 to the annual volumes of the Nautical Almanac. It may per- 

 haps be urged, that, as the Nautical Almanac is intended for 

 nautical purposes only, its original design is fully answered in 

 its present state. This, however, 1 conceive to be erroneous ; 

 since its very title implies another, and a " more important" ob- 

 ject. It has, indeed, long exceeded the limits hitherto supposed 

 to be requisite for mere nautical purposes ; but it falls far short 

 of what is now annually required for the uses of astronomy. 

 Some few improvements and additions have, indeed, been re- 

 cently made ; but much more must be done, before it can excel 

 (or even rival) the similar productions which annually issue 

 from the press at Paris, Berlin, Milan, or Vienna." 



Now, if Mr. Baily meant to give the preference to these pub- 

 lications, because they unite with the merits of an almanac 

 those of an astronomical joilrnal and review, it would have been 

 more candid to have stated this objection in a separate form, 

 and to have demonstrated how far it was incumbent on the 

 Board of Longitude to become competitors with the publishers 

 of the numerous and valuable scientific journals which already 

 exist in this country, and v.'hich afford a facility, not easily ob- 

 tained on the continent, of making ])ublic many such memoirs 

 as might become proper articles in an annual appendix of the 

 Nautical Almanac, if it were thought proper to encumber the- 

 volume with a number of pages which, to ninety-nine out of a 

 hundred purchasers of the work, would be totally useless. 



Such memoirs as are frequently found in the " Additions,'" if 

 they were presented to the Board of Longitude, would naturally 

 be transmitted by them to the Royal Society : and any frag- 

 ments wliich fell from the tables of those epicures in science, 

 might perhaps be accepted with becoming gratitude by some 

 ©thcr collcctor.'s, who, cither individually or Collectively, luiglu- 



