218 On the Nautical Almanac. 
Longitude ; for, by the recent act of parliament, it could not 
otherwise be exempted from the stamp duty: the editor there- 
fore must have the authority of this 7ew Board for its publication, 
otherwise he would be liable to a penalty for selling it without 
a stamp. But how are we to reconcile this with the two formal 
instruments inserted in the beginning of the work, dated the one 
as far back as June 1815, authorizing Messrs. Bensley to print, 
and the other as far back as July 1811, authorizing Mr. Murray 
to sell the present almanac? 1 mention these facts merely to 
show how carelessly the new labourers have entered on their ar- 
duous duty ; and how little improvement is to be expected in the 
body of the work, if we thus stumble at the very threshold. 
Indeed upon a cursory view of the work, it appears to me to be 
merely a reprint of the first edition, except as to the correction 
of the numerous errors which existed therein. I observe that the’ 
time of the conjunction of 8 Tauri with the moon, is now more 
accurately given in all the different months :—but will these mo- 
dern Sidrophels be good enough to inform the public why the 
conjunction of Pollus is so carefully noted through all the luna- 
tions, since that star cannot in any part of the globe, ever un- 
dergo an occultation by the moon. 
- When this new incorporated body shall think fit to publish the 
Nautical Almanac under their own avowed authority and direction, 
it is to be hoped that they will revise and improve the whole work, 
so as to render it at least equal to the productions of a similar 
kind published by the other states of Europe, and worthy of the 
learned names appointed by Jaw for the purpose of conducting it. 
At present it is smuggled into the world like an illevitimate child, 
and every one seems ashamed of owning it. First comes the 
garbled preface of Dr. Maskelyne, to make it appear as if ushered 
in under his auspices: but the only passage which could con- 
firm that fact, and which indeed is the only passage material to 
be known in any current year, is entirely omitted Then we meet 
with the apologetical advertisement of Mr. Pond, shifting the re- 
sponsibility from his own shoulders, and elideay ouring to make 
the reader believe that there are but few errors, and those of no 
moment: which however is, by a strange fatality, opposed, at the 
end of the Almanac for the present year, by four pages of errata; 
sonie of which are not of a trifling nature, and by no means errors 
only of the press. Lastly, we have now the equivocal authority 
of the odd and the new Board of Longitude for its publication : 
and each may thus shift upon the other, with apparently equal 
justice and as it suits their purpose, any attack which may be 
made on their ambiguous and ill- favoured offspring. 
I'am, sir, your obedient servant, 
March 15, 1819. PHILASTER. 
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