I think that I am justified,
by letters and other remarks, in believing that this introduction of
an orderly system of exhibition, not merely of observations but of the
steps for bringing them to a practical result--quite a novelty in
astronomical publications--had a markedly good effect on European
astronomy in general.--In Feb. and March I have letters from Young
about the Nautical Almanac: he was unwilling to make any great change,
but glad to receive any small assistance. South, who had been keeping
up a series of attacks on Young, wrote to me to enquire how I stood in
engagements of assistance to Young: I replied that I should assist
Young whenever he asked me, and that I disapproved of South's
course.--The date of the first visitation of the (Cambridge)
Observatory must have been near May 11th: I invited South and Baily to
my house; South and I were very near quarrelling about the treatment
of Young.--In a few days after Dr Young died: I applied to Lord
Melville for the superintendence of the Nautical Almanac: Mr Croker
replied that it devolved legally upon the Astronomer Royal, and on May
30th Pond wrote to ask my assistance when I could give any. On June
6th I was invited to the Greenwich Visitation, to which I believe I
went on the 10th.
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