Oh the Error discovered in ihe Nautical Almanac. 333 



They are well acquainted with ibe excellency of flie plnn 

 upon which it is conducted, and the almost impossihility 

 of its being inaccurate; they therefore, very wisely, 'evade 

 the useless trouble of a recalculation of that which there can 

 be no necessity but once to calculate ; and after the care and 

 liberality they have shown for its success, can it be iair to 

 accuse them of making use of a work to which they have 

 afforded their best helps? Let me a^k what the Nautical 

 Almanac would have been, had we not availed ourselves of 

 the ded'-ictions of the proibund researches of the mathema- 

 ticians of the continent? Had they withheld from us their 

 discoveries, — discoveries which Dr. Maskelyne acknow- 

 ledges in all his prefaces to the Nautical Almanacs, and 

 had published their Convoissance des Terns fron) their own 

 manuscript tables founded on the elaborate theories of La- 

 place, let me ask. In this state of tilings what would haw^ 

 been the comparison in point of excellence between the 

 French Coiinoissunce das Terns and the Nautical Almanac ? 

 It appears to me that the English astronomers in this case 

 would have gladly availed themselves of their superior 

 accuracy even in preference to the Nautical Almanac, 

 and that the French may with propriety say, that their Con- 

 voiisance des Terns, as ?ioic> copied, is from origiiinl matter. 

 It would not perhaps be unjust, even to say that we are as 

 much indebted to the French mathematicians for their liberal 

 communication? to the improvement of the Nautical Al- 

 manac, as to Dr. Maskelyne for the excellence of the plan 

 upon which it is conducted. The French have made no 

 display of this communication to Dr. Maskelyne; it is to 

 the doctor himself that we are indebted for the information, 

 who was always ready to do justice to those persons from 

 whom he had received such favours. The statement \\.\ 

 the Philosophical Magazine of last month seems to con- 

 sider Dr. Maskelyne as entitled t(» great credit for the ac-. 

 curacy of the calculations contained m the Nautical Alma- 

 nac. But I apprehend Dr. Maskelyne's fame, as connected 

 with this useful work, soars much higher, — it is the plan 

 on which the Nautical Almanac is conducted that insures it* 

 accuracy, — and that Dr. Maskelyne's fame rests more on his 

 having furnished the most correct data as elements, and 

 given general directions in the employment of them, than 

 on the subordinate examination of its contents after the cal- 

 culations were completed. This exatnination is always con- 

 ducted by a person called tlic comparer, and the correct- 

 ness of the calculations of the Ephemeris depends in a 

 Vol. 38. No. 163. Nov. 181 1. B b great 



