entirely destroyed the taste for the divine study. This gentleman, in
concert with another, ascertained, in the course of three years, the
position and apparent distances of 380 double and triple stars, the
result of about 10,000 individual measurements, and for their Memoir,
they received the astronomical prize of the French Academy of Sciences.
In the following year, the former individual communicated to the Royal
Society the apparent distances and positions of 458 double stars, of
which 160 had never before been observed.

[4] We feel as if it were a species of treason to record the
fact, that, within the wide range of the British islands, _there
is only one observatory, and scarcely one, supported by the
government_! We say scarcely one, because we believe that some
of the instruments in the observatory of Greenwich were
purchased out of the private funds of the Royal Society of
London. The observatories of Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin,
Edinburgh (except a grant of 2,000_l_.), Armagh, and Glasgow,
are all private establishments, to the support of which
government contributes nothing. The consequence of this is, that
many of them are in a state of comparative inactivity; and none
of them, but that of Dublin, have acquired any celebrity in the
astronomical world. Such, indeed, was the state of practical
astronomy in Scotland, that within these few years, a Danish
vessel, which arrived at Leith, could not obtain, even in
Edinburgh, the time of the day for the purpose of setting its
chronometers.--_Q. Rev._

Of course, our correspondent does not impeach the talent of HERSCHEL;
but it is lamentable to reflect that no attempt has been made to repeat
or extend the labours of that indefatigable astronomer.--ED.