126 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN, 



1845. who never visited us, arose out of the business of the 

 Lord Useful Knowledge Society and of University College. 



Brougham. The correspondence? w hi c h lasted from 1830 to Lord 



Brougham's death, is chiefly on Scientific subjects, on 

 many of which the statesman consulted the Professor. 1 

 One cf these was the properties of curves in Optics, on 

 which Lord Brougham had experimented and written. 

 He was also the author of a life of Newton for the 

 Society. Mr. De Morgan had, in this year, brought out 

 a memoir of Newton (to be noticed further on), in Charles 

 Knight's British Worthies; and many of Lord Brougham's 

 letters refer to the claims of Newton as set forth by dif- 

 ferent writers. 



When, shortly after this time, the injuries inflicted 

 on Guglielmo Libri by an unjust accusation of the 

 French Government aroused the indignation of most 

 English men of Science, Lord Brougham expressed his 

 sympathy, and tried to help M. Libri's cause by commu- 

 nicating with his own friends having influence in France 

 as well in politics as in Science. He, like others, found 

 and acknowledged the unjust bias of M. Arago wherever his 

 national prepossession could come in. This showed itself 

 in political antagonism (supposed, in M. Libri's case, to 

 arise from his Italian birth and proclivities), as well in 

 scientific questions as in the case of the simultaneous 

 discovery of the planet Neptune by Adams and Lever - 

 rier. 



Discovery The year 1846 was made famous by the announce- 

 ment to the world of this discovery. From every point 

 of view its history is an interesting one, but it is so 

 familiar to most readers that I must ask pardon for 

 reverting to its principal points, that the part taken by 



1 I regret that I have none of Mr. De Morgan's letters to Lord 

 Brougham on the subject of Newton, or on any question of general 

 interest. I am greatly indebted to the present Lord Brougham for 

 his kindness in sending me a few letters, but the mass of documents 

 is, I understand, so great at Brougham Castle as to render a thorough 

 search exceedingly difficult. 



