IOWMAN OF III! IIKAVKNS" 9$ 



permission to make and sell telescopes f< 

 own behoof, and with the requirement that he should 

 act aa "showman of the heavens" to prince* and 

 oases, it was neither an uncommon nor an un- 

 ions act in thu world of science. It is presented 

 to us in the gossip of the day as lacking in generosity, 

 ; small credit on the Ring and his advisers. 

 i ' r. Maskely n I stronomer-Royal, 



the head of the most famous observatoi 

 {, a man of high standing to boot, and of world- 

 wide scientific attainment, wan only .''. "' t< 



the nation, not <>f th. King. Besides t, 

 t from which. prasumni i was 



paid, wax th.-n in a transition and probably a crippled 

 state. Two years before, Mr. Dunning move.i in th- 

 Commons, and, after a feeble resistance, carried, " That 

 it was competent to the House, whenever they th 

 proper, to examine into and correct abuses in th- 

 expenditure of the Civil Li^' iea" The Court 



required to be on its guard, as, in the very year 

 pension was granted to Herschel, the Ring sent a 

 message to the Commons, " requesting a discharge of 

 vil Last, amounting to nearly 296,000; 



The endowment of research was far from being a 

 new thing in Europe. It had been the work of princes ; 

 it was now becoming the work of par! and 



people. James I. when, in defiance of the witches of 

 Scotland and Denmark, he crossed the North S 



Adolphtu, History, tit. 119, 372 (1780, 1782). Bj the ParlU- 

 gulation* ptMod in 1782 "no pension wu to eicctd 300 a 



year" (15th April) (Ctawll'i ffutory, ir. 200-91). In 17S3 amara 

 again accuiuuUUng (Caatell, ir. 301). 



