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Re: Nevil Maskelyne
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2004 Jul 19, 09:24 -0400
From: Fred Hebard
Date: 2004 Jul 19, 09:24 -0400
Here is a quote from a letter from Alexander Small to Benjamin Franklin about the appointment of the astronomer royal, who eventually turned out to be Maskelyne on this round. It is excerpted from Edwin Danson's book on Mason and Dixon, to which I referred in an earlier post in this thread. I usually manage to get about 2 pages read (my second pass through the book) at bedtime. Danson states that the affair is rooted in English politics of Whig vs Tory. Small is clearly a Whig "Mr. Short is a Candidate for Greenwich but having opposed Lord Morton [president of the Royal Society] in the 5000-pound sterling affair [Harrison's prize money] Lord Morton now opposes him and gives it as a reason, that Mr. Short is a Scotch Man though he acknowledges that he is the fittest for it of any Man. Those two [James Short and John Mitchell] who would have done honour to the place, being thus laid aside, I believe the Tory Interest, at present all powerful, will get it for an Oxonian, who never made an observation. What Candide Patrons we are of the Sciences!" Oxford was the Tory school, more or less, and Cambridge the Whig school. Lord Morton was Scotch, so not especially prejudice against Short, who trained at Edinburgh. As it turned out, the post went to a Cambridge man, Maskelyne. I don't know whether he was Tory or Whig, but he was high up in society. Harrison apparently was a typical Whig. So this is more evidence that Maskelyne opposed Harrison unjustly. But it was not just Maskelyne, rather the whole Tory establishment, which was in ascendency at the time. Maskelyne more was the front man. Danson has further comments in his epilogue on Maskelyne, who apparently didn't treat Mason well. Dixon, essentially Mason's assistant as I understand it, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Mason, who continued to contribute to astronomy, working on the lunar tables, never was elected. Mason may have been a Quaker, but I don't have the book in front of me. Fred Hebard ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederick V. Hebard, PhD Email: mailto:Fred@acf.org Staff Pathologist, Meadowview Research Farms Web: http://www.acf.org American Chestnut Foundation Phone: (276) 944-4631 14005 Glenbrook Ave. Fax: (276) 944-0934 Meadowview, VA 24361
