6o HISTORY OF THE [1830-40 z i 
moderate, but no less convincing style of Baily.* The violence g] 
of South was no doubt disapproved by many ; thus, Airy writes ^ 
in his Autobiography : “ In February and March I have letters a 
from Young about the Nautical Almanac : he was unwilling to S€ 
make any great change, but glad to receive any small assistance. Sl 
South, who had been keeping up a series of attacks on Young, G1 
wrote to me to enquire how I stood in engagements of assistance to m 
Young. I replied that I should assist Young whenever he asked C< 
me, and that I disapproved of South’s course. The date of the a 
first visitation of the Cambridge Observatory must have been J. 
near May 11. I invited South and Baily to my house ; South and y\ 
I were very near quarrelling about the treatment of Young. In ai 
a few days after Dr. Young died [on May 10], I applied to Lord pi 
Melville for the superintendence of the Nautical Almanac : Mr. 
Croker replied that it devolved legally upon the Astronomer Royal, tl 
and on May 30, Pond wrote to ask my assistance when I could ti< 
give any.” se 
Young’s death and Pond’s assuming charge of the Almanac al 
seem to have caused a lull in the agitation. It was probably h( 
thought that the work would at once recover the prestige it had pi 
enjoyed in the days of Maskelyne. Anyhow, nothing was done gi 
by Pond except, no doubt, to see that the former standard of ot 
accuracy was again attained, while he continued the issue of a 
yearly supplement containing some of the additional information ar 
demanded. The call for a more radical reform was, however, aided vc 
by the Astronomical Society giving its Gold Medal to Encke in hi 
1830 February for his Astronomisches Jahrbuch for 1830. This R 
was the first step of an official character which the Society took in ar 
support of the demand for a completely new British ephemeris. C( 
South, when presenting the medal (which he did in a moderate P 1 
and dignified speech), announced that the Admiralty had ordered 
some additions to the Almanac for 1833, and intended to order 
further additions to that for 1834. P l 
At last the Admiralty made a move in the right direction by ec l 
addressing a letter to the Council of the Astronomical Society on 
1830 July 28. This stated that directions had been given to the ev 
Astronomer Royal, who was in temporary charge of the Nautical 
Almanac , to insert certain additions proposed by the late Hydro- 
* We must give one little specimen. Smyth, when surveying the Mediter- sig 
ranean, was obliged to use the ephemerides of Paris, Milan, Bologna, and es 
Florence on account of the omissions and errors of the Nautical Almanac (this • 
Smyth in a letter certifies to be true). But wishing to show civility to a ° 
Spanish captain, he presented him with his copies of the Nautical Almanac to 
for the current and subsequent years. “ Captain Smyth with his foreign 
ephemerides found his way to England ; but there is an awkward story 
afloat that the Spanish captain has not since been heard of.” ac