of the Philosophical Transactions for 1829, whilst of the
Observations made at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, two
hundred and fifty copies only are printed?

Of these seven hundred and fifty copies, seven hundred and ten
will be distributed to members of the Royal Society, to six
hundred of whom they will probably be wholly uninteresting or
useless; and thus the country incurs a constantly recurring
annual expense. Nor is it easy to see on what principle a
similar destination could be refused for the observations made at
the Cape of Good Hope.]

To those who measure the question of the national encouragement
of science by its value in pounds, shillings, and pence, I will
here state a fact, which, although pretty generally known, still,
I think, deserves attention. A short time since it was
discovered by government that the terms on which annuities had
been granted by them were erroneous, and new tables were
introduced by act of Parliament. It was stated at the time that
the erroneous tables had caused a loss to the country of between
two and three millions sterling. The fact of the sale of those
annuities being a losing concern was long known to many; and the
government appear to have been the last to be informed on the
subject. Half the interest of half that loss, judiciously applied
to the encouragement of mathematical science, would, in a few
years, have rendered utterly impossible such expensive errors.

To those who bow to the authority of great names, one remark may
have its weight. The MECANIQUE COELESTE, [The first volume of
the first translation of this celebrated work into our own