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