the employment of an additional computer.”—Astron. Royal, Rep. June 1841, p. 7. “On former occasions I have avowed without scruple that I do not consider the Royal Observatory as a mere isolated place for the conduct of Astronomical observations. I consider it a part, perhaps the most important part, of the scientific institutions of this country."-P. 18. "In concluding this long report, I have been uniformly supported by the confidence of the Government."—Astron. Royal, Rep. June 1844, p. 20. The following extract of a letter from the Astronomer Royal to the late Sir Robert Peel, shows that his time was so occupied with the labours of the Railway Gauge Commission, that he was unable to draw up a memorial which he had himself proposed, even though it related to an astronomical subject-our colonial observatories. * * * * "I have been so closely employed on the papers of the Railway Gauge Commission, that it has been impossible for me to draw up a memorial before the present time. "April 16th, 1846. * * "To the Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart. &c." * "By the giving opinions on subjects of railways and other mechanical matters referred to me by Government, it has appeared that our energies are not wholly absorbed in the mere Astronomy of the Observatory."-Astron. Royal, Rep. June 1846, P. 10. (N.B. The italics do not occur in the original quotations.) Now it is evident from these extracts from Reports of the Astronomer Royal to the Board of Visitors and from other facts, that he wishes himself to be considered the general referee of Government in all scientific questions. The office of Astronomer Royal is one of great importance: it requires the undivided energy and talents of one person, and great as Mr. Airy's abilities undoubtedly are, yet it is highly injudicious to divert them from their legitimate object, the direction of the many arduous duties of the establishment over which he presides. During many years I have frequently found, in my communications with members of government on subjects connected with the Calculating Engines, difficulties on their part which remained entirely unexplained;-unseen obstacles which were never alluded to, but whose existence could not be doubted. Although frequently warned by personal friends that it was unwise to neglect such machinations as those which I have, at length, been reluctantly compelled to expose; yet I was unwilling for a long time to believe that they were directed against myself. I have now traced the connexion of the Rev. R. Sheepshanks (who had avowed his determination "to discredit me," and also to "attack me on another subject at a future time,"), through his friend the Astronomer Royal, with the Government. According to the Astronomer Royal's own statement, he was their adviser on all scientific subjects. The Government had no other official adviser, and would scarcely have ventured to decide upon points connected with some of the most profound questions of mathematics, on their own responsibility. There are, I am aware, other channels than those of official reports, by which the Government may have been influenced. I do not, therefore, expect to find any formal report denying the practical utility of the Calculating Engines, or the possibility of constructing them. If there is any such, I claim as a matter of justice, that it be published. The Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine are questions of pure science. If the Astronomer Royal has maintained that they are either useless or impracticable, then the grounds of that opinion must have been stated, and, if published, the solidity of those grounds might be examined. It now becomes necessary to take a very brief review of the conduct of Government with respect to the Difference Engine. Having contrived and executed a small model of a Difference Engine, I published a very short account of it in a letter to Sir Humphry Davy, in the year 1822. At the wish of the Government I undertook to construct for them an engine on a much larger scale, which should print its results. I continued to work at this Engine until 1834, refusing in the meantime other sources of profitable occupation, amongst which was an office of about 2500l. a-year. Circumstances over which I had no control then caused the work to be suspended. After eight years of repeated applications, and of the most harassing delay, at the end of 1842 the Government arrived at the resolution of giving up the completion of the Difference Engine, on the alleged ground of its expense. In the meantime, new views had opened out to me the prospect of performing purely algebraic operations by means of mechanism. To arrive at so entirely unexpected a result I deemed TO THE BOARD OF VISITORS OF THE GREENWICH ROYAL OBSERVATORY IN REPLY TO THE CALUMNIES OF MR. BABBAGE AT THEIR IN HIS BOOK ENTITLED THE EXPOSITION OF 1851. PRINTED BY G. BARCLAY, CASTLE ST. LEICESTER SQ. "Chi potendo vietar, non vieta il male, E far vendetta d' ogni villania; E se qualch' un di voi questo disprezza, In se non ha bontà nè gentilezza." BERNI, Orlando Innamorato, lib. i. canto xxi. stan. 6. |