Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/70

 54 HISTORY OF THE [1830-40 The instrument had thus been freed from the imperfections complained of, but South remained obstinate, stopped further work and continued to refuse to pay Troughton's bill. Proceed- ings were therefore commenced towards the end of 1833 to compel him to do so ; but as so many technical questions were involved, the court recommended arbitration, which was agreed to. Mr. William Henry Maule, who was made arbitrator, had been Senior Wrangler in 1810 ; he became afterwards a Justice of the Common Pleas.* Counsel for Troughton & Simms was Mr. Starkie (Senior Wrangler in 1803), with Sheepshanks as his adviser ; for South was Mr. Drinkwater Bethune, a high wrangler of 1823 (Airy's year).f Maule at once insisted that Troughton & Simms should be allowed to finish their work according to the plan proposed by Sheepshanks, but only to be paid for if successful. In 1834 July* after most of the time allowed had been spent on getting a screw made and the clock put up, if the instrument was shown to and tested by Pond and Donkin, who had to acknowledge that it was perfectly fit for the work it was intended for, viz. micrometric measures of double stars. Measures of several pairs were success- fully taken by Airy and others. The legal proceedings went on for a couple of months longer, and in 1834 December the whole claim was awarded, including payment for the additions. But although the instrument had been proved to be satisfactory, South was not to be turned from his desire of posing as a martyr. He smashed the whole mounting to pieces, and in 1836 December advertised the fragments for sale by auction, by means of a scurrilous poster, in which the R.A.S., Troughton & Simms, and " their Assistants, Mr. Airy and the Rev. R. Sheepshanks," came in for a good deal of abuse. His folly cost him fully 8000. Lord Rosse offered to design and even to make an equatoreal for him, but he declined. We get an insight into his mind through a conversation he had with the American astronomer, O. M. Mitchel, in 1842. Exhibiting what he called the wreck of all his hopes (fragments of the mounting), South said in reply to a remark that the telescope might yet be mounted : " No, Struve has reaped the golden harvest among the double stars and there is little now for me to hope or expect." || said to have been probably the greatest wit on the English Bench. For a delightful account of him, see What the Judge Thought, by E. A. Parry (London, 1922). f Held afterwards a high Government appointment in India; died 1850. Wrote lives of Galileo and Kepler in the Library of Useful Knowledge, and with Sir John Lubbock a little book " On Probability," in the same series. t Described by Sheepshanks in a paper, M.N., 3, pp. 40-46. According to Robinson, Proc. Roy. Soc., 16, xlvi. (Obituary of South).
 * It is a great pity that no record is left of the proceedings, as Maule is
 * Publications of the Yerkes Observatory, 1, xiv.