54 Reply to Dr. Kelly's Letter on Ins supposed 



acquainted with Dr. Kelly's pretended discovery, is it likely I 

 should have there so particularly noticed the uncertainty m 

 our knowledge of the actual quantity of the obliquity of the 

 ecliptic, as well as of its secular variation ? To every impartial 

 reader T think the inference will be evident, without any 

 further declaration on my part, or without mv having in 

 that paper pointed out that Dr. Maskelyne had given the 

 obliquity of the ecliptic for the year 1812, from the winter 

 instead of the summer solstice. 



What a fortunate circumstance vi'ouM it have been for 

 Dr. Kelly, had the nature of that communication rendered it 

 necessary for me to have particularly specified the discre- 

 pancy in the Almanac of 181 2, with either the subsequent or 

 preceding Almanac, in proof of what I had asserted ! What 

 a labour would he not have saved I what calculations avoid- 

 ed ! and what anxiety for the consequences which the ho- 

 nour of such an important discovery was likely to heap 

 upon him would he not have been relieved from ! For not- 

 withstanding all Dr. Kellv has said of his not being in- 

 fluenced by any 7«o/iye.s oj vanity; it is however a pretty 

 strong argument in proof of the contrary, when we find 

 him takuig all possible pains to make not only his supposed 

 discovery as much known as he can, but to accompany it 

 with remarks of its vast importance; for can we consider the 

 following sentence in any other point of view : " It was 

 not therefore surprising that in the course of such practice 

 an inaccuracy should be discovered vvdiich had escaped the 

 notice of the principal astronomers of Europe !" and also 

 in what other sense can we understand the pains which he 

 has taken to make the subject so generally known ? He 

 called on Dr. Burney, and told him of his message to the 

 Astronomer Royal. He wrote to Sir Joseph Banks and Mr. 

 Vince, comnninicated it to the Earl of Rosse, and in fact 

 it appears he told it to every one he knew; and yet all this 

 was done, we are told, without vanity f 



In speaking of our letters, the Doctor says, " But not- 

 withstanding their manifest disposition, such is the force 

 of truth, that all the leading facts in the [his] statement 

 remain uncontroverted; and, indeed, wholly untouched. 

 They allow that an error has been committed in the Nau- 

 tical Almanac, that the French and American astronomers 

 have copied it, and that / have discovered it." 



In what part of the letter here referred to, let me ask, 

 have I allowed that an error has been committed in tlie 

 Nautical Almanac of 1812 ? 'I have shown that Dr. Mas- 

 kelyne took his obliquity of the ecliptic for that year from 



the 



