1820.] Dr. James Bradley. 327 



The situation of Astronomer Royal was the real element of 

 Dr. Bradley. He devoted himself to observations with the most 

 indefatigable industry ; so that the remainder of his life consti- 

 tutes, so to speak, a portion of the history of the heavens. 



Though the collection of instruments at Greenwich was 

 already very considerable, it was impossible that so ardent an 

 observer as Dr. Bradley could avoid wishing for various others, 

 both to ensure a greater degree of precision, and to suit his own 

 particular views. At the annual visit of the committee of the 

 Royal Society in 1748 he laid an inventory of the apparatus 

 before that learned body, and represented in such strong terms, 

 the necessity of getting the old instruments repaired and new 

 ones constructed, that the Society deemed it requisite to lay the 

 representation before the king, who was pleased to grant 1000/ 

 for the purposes pointed out by the Astronomer Royal. 

 Messrs. Graham and Bird were immediately set to work, and 

 the observatory was soon provided with the most complete set of 

 apparatus, which the state of the arts at that time admitted. 

 The observations made by Dr. Bradley were exceedingly nume- 

 rous ; and it may be said with truth that they form the first 

 collection of rigidly accurate astronomical observations ever 

 presented to the public. They constitute a kind of epocha in 

 astronomy, by rendering it necessary for all subsequent observers 

 to provide themselves Avith instruments of the requisite delicacy 

 and precision, and of taking the necessary pains to ensure the 

 accuracy of their observations. 



Soon after his going to Greenwich to reside, the Rectorship 

 of tliat parish became vacant, and it was offered to Dr. Bradley ; 

 but he was disinterested enough to dechne the offer, fearing that 

 his duties as a clergyman and as an astronomer might interfere 

 with each other. George II. was so much struck with this disin- 

 terested refusal, that he gave him a pension of 250/. a year in the 

 beginning of 1752. The reason assigned was his uncommon 

 skUl in astronomy and in other parts of the mathematics, and 

 the advantasies resulting to the commerce and navigation of 

 Great Britain from the application which he made of that skill. 



In the year 1747 Dr. Bradley was chosen a member of the 

 Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin : the year after, he was 

 made Foreign Associate of the Academy of Sciences of Paris : 

 in 1754 he became a member of the Imperial Academy of St. 

 Petersburg!! : and in 1757 of the Institute of Bologna. 



He continued his unremitting attention to the duties of his 

 situation till towards the end of 1760, when he was seized with 

 a malady tliat deprived him of his strength. For two whole years 

 he experienced no other inconvenience ; but about the end of 

 June, 1762, lie was seized with a suppression of urine in conse- 



auence of an intlaumiation of the kidneys. Of this disease he 

 ied on July lo, in the 70th year of his age. He was buried at 

 Micliin-llumptuii, in Gloucestershire, in the oume place where 



