1816] Mathematical Sciences in Great Britain. 94: 
ciate English talents, but to prove that talents of the first order are 
kept here in a dormant state, for want of due encouragement, and 
the means of bringing them into proper activity. It may not be 
amiss, however, in order to clear myself entirely of such suspicion, 
to draw a slight comparison between the productions of the French 
and English press, as far as relates to the mathematical sciences, 
within the last 20 or 30 years; and in order to do this the more 
effectually, I shall divide those productions into three classes, viz, : 
1. Real inventions and discoveries; 2. Extensions and improve- 
ments to principles previously established; and, 3. The new editions 
and translations of the most celebrated ancient authors. 
To the first class belong the Theorie des Fonctions Analytiques, 
by Lagrange ; the Mecaniques Analytiques of the same author; to 
which we may also add his Resolution des Equations Numeriques: 
the Descriptive Geometry, by Monge, and the new Caiculus of 
Probabilities, by Laplace, are also works of the same kind, each 
having added many important discoveries to our previous stock of 
knowledge, and furnished us with the means of still increasing them 
by further researches : and if we only allow ourselves to step across 
the Rhine, we may add to these the Calcul des Derivations, by 
Arbogast, and the Disquisitiones Arithmeticze, by Gauss. 
Now what has the English press produced, in the same period, of 
a nature that can be compared with any of those original produc- 
tions? I am afraid not even one solitary volume! I say nothing 
of our Philosophical Transactions ; because whatever may have 
appeared there wil] doubtless find an equivalent in the Memoirs of 
the National Institute. Thus far, then, I hope I have acquitted 
myself of an exaggeration in my former statement. 
Let us now examine the second class of works, in which exten- 
sion has been given to principles previously established. 
The most distinguished work of this kind is the Mecaniques 
Celestes, by Laplace; for which we can boast of no equivalent in 
English. ‘The Calcul Differential et Calcul Integral, by Lacroix, 
may also, without much violation of our classification, be intro- 
duced under this head, which work, without naming many other 
respectable performances of the same kind, will not only not find 
its equal, but no work with which it can be in any way compared 
in our language. The same may be said of the Geodesic, by Puis- 
sant; the Geometrie de Position, by Carnet; the Hydrodyna- 
miques of Bossut; the Astronomical Tables, by Burckhart; the 
Trigonometrical ‘Tables answering to the new division of the circle 
by Borda; the Mecaniques Hydrauliques, by Prony; the Theory 
of the Planets, by Gauss ; and the Histoire des Mathematiques, by 
Montucla. f 
With respect to the Base du Systeme Metrique Decimal, we have 
a work worthy of comparison in the Trigonometrical Survey of 
England; but this, it will be observed, is a national undertaking, 
and protected by the Government, and therefore adds strength to 
the argument | shall endeavour to establish; that protection is all 
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