- 114 
and drefs of their tenants ; thinking that 
all beyond the coarfeft fare and clothing 
was a robbery of the landed proprietors, 
who held the peafantry in a ftate little bet- 
ter than that of preedial flaves. More en- 
Jarged, liberal, and humane ideas now 
prevail. The capital and the profperity 
of a fubftantial tenantry are now generally 
confidered as the beft pledge both of the 
payment of the prefent rent and the future 
improvement of the eftate. Of the towns 
or boroughs itis obfrved, that their prof- 
perity is in a flate of prosreflion in fome 
though not in exa&t proportion to that of 
the land. The inhabitants of Bamfthire, 
particularly in towns, and {till more parti- 
cularly thofe of Bamff, are remarkable even 
in the North for hofpitality, gaiety, and 
withal and above all for an oftentatious 
difplay of gentility and confequence much 
above their ftation and incomes. ‘This 
laf& circumftance gives frequent. occafion to 
Lord Fife to exercife his humour, which 
is often of the farcaftic kind. When the 
burghers of Bamff afk his Lordthip, on 
his return from London, when he came 
totown (meaning Bamff, to which his feat 
of Duff-houfe is contizuous), his reply is, 
‘< My friend, Ihave juft come from town.” 
When any one comes up to him with his 
bonnet in his hand tn the flreets of Bamff, 
he fays, ‘© Put on your bonnet, man; put - 
on your bonnet ; L am not a Bamff’s bail- 
lie!” 
eT 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
CONSIDERATIONS o# the PROGRESS of 
ASTRGNOMY of LATE YEARS, READ 
to’ the PUBLIC. ASSEMBLY of the 
ACADEMY DE BOURG, DEPARTMENT 
of ALN, by JEROME DE LALANDE. 
SCIENCE which very few perfons 
A cultivate, becaufe it is difficult, and 
leads not to any certain path of fortune, 
fhould feem, perhaps, to be the floweft in 
its progrefs ; however, by a happy com- 
binatton of circumfances and a happy af- 
femblage of zeal and talents, there Is none 
whici has made fo rapid a progrefs as this 
has done of late years. 
I thail not {peak (iays Citizen La- 
lande) of thofe whereof T have been a wit- 
nefs, and which I durft not hope for, 
when I began, in the year 1746, to devote 
myfelf to aftronomy. The comet of 17597 
was the firft remarkable event which dii- 
tinguifned the commencement of that 
Aappy and brilliant revolution. Halley 
had predidied it ever fince 1705 ; but the 
event was neceflary to’confirm it ; and 
this demonfration that the comets are 
Confiderations on the Progrefs of Aftronomy. 
[ Sept, i, 
true planets turning about the fun, was 
contemplated with enthufiafm ; notwith- 
ftanding the ideas of Caffini, whofe afto - 
nifhing reputation in aftrenomy does 
not prevent us from faying that he ob- 
ferved phenomena better than he explain- 
ed them : uum cuique decus pofteritas re- 
pendit. 
That comet gave, at the fame time, an 
admirable proof of univerfal attraétion.—= 
Its return was to be retarded for twenty 
months by the attraétions of Jupiter and 
Saturn, according to the refult of immenfe 
calculations that Clairault and I had 
made previoufly, and this retardation was 
juftified, or, at leaft, nearly fo, by the 
return when obferved. 
In 1761 and. 1769 the paflages of Ve- 
nus over the fun, obferved in aJl the coun- 
trfés of the world, indicated to us the 
exact diftance of the Sun from the Earth, 
thirty-four millions of leagues, relative to 
which there was before an uncertainty of 
many millions. : 
The voyage of La Caille to the Cape 
of Good Hope, in 1751, procured to us 
the knowledge of the fouthern ftars, of 
new Tables of movements of the Sun, a 
new Table of Refraétion ; and that fkilful 
aftronomer aceredited the method of find- 
ing the longitude at fea by means of the 
Moon ; an objeét that is become effential . 
iN navigation. , é 
In 1753, Tobias Meyer publifhed Ta- 
bles of the Moon, wherein the errer did not 
exceed two minutes, and which reduced 
the inveftigation of the Jongitude at fea 
to a great exaétnefs. He improved them 
fill more before his death. Mafon, in 
England, added a great degree of perfec-” 
tion toit, by calculating a great number 
of cbhfervations. And, laftly, the Bureae 
aes Longitudes, of France, having pre- 
pofed a prize of 6000 francs to him who 
fhould give a furiher degree of perfection 
to the Tables cf the Moon, M. Burg, 
aftronomer at Vienna, has brought them 
this year to the point of not erring one 
quarter of a minute. ° 
In 1764 was publifhed the greateft 
treatife of afironomy that has appeared for 
along time. It was fpread throughout 
Europe, and infenfibly infpired a taite for 
the {cience. I have had the fatisfaétion 
to obferve that all tne great aftronomers ot 
our time have been formed by this work, 
which ‘has gone through three editions. — 
he tables of the planets have obtained 
the fame degree of perfection. Mercury 
is fo difficult to difcerp,: that the great. 
Copernicus diced without having ever feen 
that planet. I have emitted nothing to 
4 procure 
> 
* 
