Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/251

 the suppression of the statement; but Flamsteed's feelings towards him were thenceforth of unmitigated bitterness.

Newton nevertheless dined at the Royal Observatory on 11 April 1704. The real object of the visit was to ascertain the state of the catalogue, which Flamsteed, ‘to obviate clamour,’ had announced to be sufficiently forward for printing. It was about half finished, and Newton offered to recommend its publication to Prince George of Denmark. The astronomer royal ‘civilly refused’ the proposal. ‘Plainly,’ he added, ‘his design was to get the honour of all my pains to himself.’

Yet the suggested plan was carried out. A committee of the Royal Society, including Newton, Wren, Arbuthnot, and Gregory, was appointed by the prince, and on 23 Jan. 1705 reported in favour of publication. The prince undertook the expense; arrangements were made for printing the catalogue and observations, and articles between Flamsteed, the ‘referees’ (as the members of the committee were called), and the printers were signed on 10 Nov. 1705.

A prolonged wrangle ensued. Each party accused the other of wilfully delaying the press, and a deadlock of many months was no unfrequent result of the contentions. Flamsteed gave free vent to his exasperation. His observations were made with his own instruments, and computed by his paid servants. He understood better than any man living how such a series ought to be presented, and naturally thought it a gross hardship to be placed at the mercy of a committee adverse to all his views.

There were discreditable suspicions on both sides. ‘I fear,’ Flamsteed wrote to Sharp on 28 Nov. 1705, ‘Sir Isaac will still find ways to obstruct the publication of a work which perhaps he thinks may make him appear less. I have some reason to think he thrust himself into my affairs purposely to obstruct them.’ On the other hand, it was resolved at a meeting of the referees on 13 July 1708 ‘that the press shall go on without further delay,’ and ‘that if Mr. Flamsteed do not take care that the proofs be well corrected and go on with dispatch, another corrector be employed.’

By Christmas 1707 the first volume, containing only the observations made with the sextant, 1676–89, was at last printed off, but as to the arrangement of the second there was total disagreement. While it was at its height the prince died, on 28 Oct. 1708, and the publication was suspended. Not ill-pleased, Flamsteed resumed his work with the catalogue. A board of visitors to the observatory, consisting of the president (Newton) and other members of the Royal Society, appointed by a royal order, dated 12 Dec. 1710, was, however, empowered both to superintend the publication and to take cognisance of official misconduct on the part of the astronomer-royal. Flamsteed's indignant protest elicited from Mr. Secretary St. John only the haughty reply that ‘the queen would be obeyed.’

The visitors resumed without Flamsteed's knowledge the suspended printing of his catalogue. Two imperfect copies, comprising about three-fourths of the whole, had been deposited with the referees on 15 March 1706, and 20 March 1708, respectively. The first only was sealed, and Flamsteed raised a needless clamour about Newton's ‘treachery’ in opening it. The truth seems to be that the act complained of under the influence of subsequent wrath was accomplished, with Flamsteed's concurrence, as early as 1708. On 2 March 1711 he was applied to by Arbuthnot to complete the catalogue from his later observations, and at first appeared disposed to temporise; but on learning that Halley was the editor he kept no further terms, writing to Arbuthnot on 29 March ‘that the neglect of me, and the ill-usage I had met with, was a dishonour to the queen and the nation, and would cause just reflections on the authors of it in future times’ (, Flamsteed, p. 227).

In this temper he was summoned, on 26 Oct. 1711, to meet the president and other members of the board at the Royal Society's rooms in Crane Court. Requested to state the condition of his instruments, he declared they were his own, and he would suffer no one to concern himself with them. Whereupon Newton exclaimed, ‘As good have no observatory as no instruments!’ ‘I proceeded from this,’ Flamsteed relates, ‘to tell Sir Isaac (who was fired) that I thought it the business of their society to encourage my labours, and not to make me uneasy for them, and that by their clandestine proceedings I was robbed of the fruits of my labours; that I had expended above 2,000l. in instruments and assistance. At this the impetuous man grew outrageous, and said, “We are, then, robbers of your labours.” I answered, I was sorry they acknowledged themselves to be so. After this, all he said was in a rage. He called me many hard names—puppy was the most innocent of them. I only told him to keep his temper, restrain his passion, and thanked him as often as he gave me ill names’ (ib. p. 228).

We have only Flamsteed's account of this unseemly altercation. It at any rate put the