THE ROYAL SOCIETY AND THE STATE 



Dollond's " new invention." Further, it was in answer 

 to a petition from the Royal Society that the King gave 

 orders for the printing of the Observations made at the 

 Observatory. At a later date the Society called on the 

 Government to advance funds to establish magnetical 

 observatories at Greenwich, and in various parts of the 

 British dominions, with the result that in a few years no 

 fewer than forty magnetical establishments were in full 

 activity. 



In connection with the Observatory may be mentioned 

 the considerable share which the Society took in bringing 

 about the important alteration of the calendar, known 

 as the Change of Style, which took place in 1752. The 

 Bill was drawn up by Peter Davall, the Secretary of the 

 Society, aided and supported by Lord Macclesfield, who 

 became President the same year. The change was approved 

 and assisted by the actual President, Martin Folkes. The 

 feeling of the people was so strongly against the change, 

 that the illness and death of Bradley, who as Astronomer 

 Royal had assisted the Government with his advice, which 

 took place not long afterwards, were popularly attributed 

 to a judgment from Heaven. 



Very brief must be the mention of some of the other 

 works in the public service which were carried out at a 

 no small cost of labour to the Fellows of the Society. 



About 1750, the Lord Mayor of London, two of the 

 Judges, and an Alderman, having died in one year from 



jail-fever caught at the Old Bailey Sessions, the Society 



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