prime vertical: accounts of the measure are in the Astronomische Nachrichten, The distance on the arc of parallel between Dover and Falmouth having been ascertained in the course of the English survey, and difference of longitude between them being determined, by Dr. Tiarks, by the transportation of chronometers, the length of an arc of parallel for one degree in a definite latitude is found, and this determination assists much in the determining the earth's figure. But a far longer arc of parallel has been measured on the Continent, from Marennes (near Bordeaux) to Padua. The geodesic part of this measure had been nearly completed by the French Government, while the country was in their possession; all that was wanting was to connect the surveys on opposite sides of the Alps. This was effected (though not without difficulty,) by Austrian and Sardinian officers. It was then necessary to determine the difference of longitude of the extremities. This was done by dividing the arc into six portions, in each of which a point could be found visible at both its extremities, and observing at each extremity the absolute time at which small quantities of gunpowder were fired at the middle point. The French part was undertaken by M M. Nicollet and Brousseau; the rest by M M. Plana and Carlini. The result thus obtained is perhaps liable to considerable doubt, as the errors of all the different observations are accumulated. It is unfortunate that the difference of longitude of the extremities has not been determined without any intermediate determination.

The above, as far as I am aware, are all the measures that have actually been made within the present century. But there are others to which we may look as not far distant. The survey of Ireland that has lately been and is now going forward, is, I suppose, in accuracy and in excellence of arrangement, (I am not speaking of the minutiae of the map, but of the principal triangles, by which the great distances north and south, or east and west are to be measured,) superior to every preceding survey. Little is now wanting for the measure of an arc of meridian but the observation of zenithdistances of stars at its extremities. The country is also favorable for the measuring an arc of parallel of considerable extent and a new method of producing intense light, introduced into practice by one of the gentlemen employed on the survey, will probably give the means of determining the differences of longitude on a long arc without the errors produced by intermediate stations. It is also understood that our Government have long contemplated the repetition or extension of Lacaille's measure at the Cape of Good Hope: and several circumstances lead me to hope that this undertaking, which would perhaps contribute more than any other to our knowledge of the earth's figure, will ere long be seriously taken up. The extension of Struve's arc is in contemplation."

We have searched in vain for any information regarding the are said to have been measured by Mr. Reuben Burrows, and are almost driven to suppose, although it is exceedingly unlikely that Professor Airy should have made a mistake on the subject, that he had been misinformed. Mr. Burrows did make many observations of latitudes and longitudes of places in Bengal, and these he says were more accurate than any others previously determined. A list of them is published in the Asiatic Researches, and various articles by Mr. Burrows himself, are contained in that noble collection. This makes it likely that if ever he had attempted such a work as the measurement of an arc of the Meridian, we should have found there the details of the opera

tions. But neither there, nor in the Gleanings of Science, nor in the Asiatic Society's Journal, have we been able to find the slightest allusion to any such work. Besides, we do not believe that there were in all India at that time any instruments with which one could have thought of attempting an operation of so great difficulty and delicacy. In the absence then of any information on the subject, we think it most probable that Mr. Burrows had made a proposal that an arc should be measured in India, and that Mr. Airy, through inadvertence, supposed that it had actually been accomplished.

We must, therefore, in the present state of our information, regard Col. (then Brigade Major) Lambton, as the actual originator of the grand Trigonometrical Survey of India. The manner of its origination was not unlike that in which the Scottish survey was begun. It was at the conclusion of the war with Tippoo Sahib, that Lambton proposed to survey part of the territory that had been conquered; and especially to throw a series of triangles across from Madras to the opposite coast, and so to determine the latitudes and longitudes of many important places, which were understood to be very erroneously determined in the survey executed by the laborious Colonel MacKenzie. Lambton's plan was first submitted to Colonel Wellesley, in whose regiment he had formerly served; and he, as every one would expect, at once caught hold of the benefits to be gained, and the difficulties that would have to be encountered, and seems to have resolved to leave no stone unturned, but to get the work accomplished. He sent up the proposal to Government, with his earnest recommendation that it should be acceded to, and most probably he had also privately used his influence with his brother, the Governor-General; for we find him in correspondence with Lord Clive, the Governor of Madras, on the subject.

The history of the proceedings, in regard to the commencement of the Survey, is not quite accurately given by Colonel Everest in his work now under review; and it will be necessary for us first to quote a passage from the work, and then to make a few remarks regarding it:

"In the commencement of the great Trigonometrical Survey in 1799, under my predecessor, one steel chain by Ramsden was the only measuring apparatus, (Vide As. Res., Vol. VII. p. 321.) The history of this was rather singular. It had been sent with Lord Macartney's embassy as a present to the Emperor of China, and having been refused by that potentate, it was made over by his Lordship to the Astronomer, Dr. Dinwiddie, who brought it to Calcutta for sale, together with the Zenith Sector, (a beautiful instrument for that time by Ramsden). The purchase of both was made by Lord Clive, the Governor of Madras, at the instance of the Earl of Mornington,

Governor-General of India; and by the recommendation of Sir Arthur Wellesley, who commanded the 33d Regiment of Foot, Lieutenant William Lambton, then a subaltern in that Regiment, was first drawn from obscurity, and placed in the situation for which he was so eminently qualified. Amidst the blaze of glory which has since encircled the brow of his Grace the Duke of Wellington, the small but steady light which is emitted from so trifling a gem can hardly be deemed deserving of notice; but the time may yet come, when it will add in some wise even to the renown of the hero of Waterloo, to have been the patron of one of the most illustrious geodists that ever lived, and of one of the most important meridional measurements that have ever been undertaken."

With the sentiment expressed in the concluding sentence of this extract we do most heartily concur; but as we have stated, the account of the facts is not quite correctly given by our author. Lambton was not at this period a subaltern in the 33rd Regiment. He had previously to this been appointed Brigade Major to the King's troops under the presidency of Fort St. George. In fact he seems never to have done duty with his Regiment in India at all. He had been barrack-master in the province of New Brunswick, and during his absence his regiment had come to India; almost immediately after joining it in Calcutta, Lambton was appointed by Sir Alured Clarke to the office just mentioned. It does not seem that he ever knew Col. Wellesley until he was his fellow-passenger from Calcutta to Madras: and it is said that, during the voyage and after their arrival at Madras, Lambton was sadly chagrined by the inattention which he supposed that he suffered at the hands of the future duke. But it would have been strange if a man of such merit as Lambton could have been so long, (for the voyage was long and stormy) a shipmate of the Duke of Wellington, without his discovering his talents, and being ready when occasion offered to do what he could to render them available to the service of his country. It appears moreover that the instruments were not purchased from Dr. Dinwiddie by Lord Clive at Madras, but that they were bought at Calcutta, probably by Lord Mornington himself, and sent down to Madras.

When they reached Lambton, he found that they were in a wretched state. The telescope of the zenith sector was so rusted that it was impossible to move the tubes for the adjustment of the focus. Far away from all means of procuring the assistance of professional instrument-makers, most other men would have been daunted by such an initial mishap; but Lambton had that genius which seems almost to rejoice in difficulties, for the very pleasure of braving and overcoming them. It is a maxim that we have often heard

from the lips of the venerable author of one of the works whose titles stand at the head of this article, (the late Professor Wallace), that no man can ever be a practical philosopher unless he can bore with a saw, and saw with a gimlet. If this power of adaptation to circumstances, and fertility of resources, be needful in England, where intelligent professional men are every where at hand, and where the only barrier that the philosopher finds to the employment of their services consists in the difficulty of paying them, how much more necessary must it have been in India, (and in the days when the wealth of Croesus could not have purchased the services of a workman superior to a common Mistry,) where the perpetual bangs, bangs (bamboo) must be made to do duty on all occasions. With what kind of saw Lambton bored his holes, and with what kind of gimlet he sawed his bamboos, we do not know, but he succeeded in putting the instrument into working order.

Now here we are going to indulge in a little political reflection, which we suppose will not be reckoned either very original or very profound. When we took occasion a few pages back to discuss the question of the thickness of horses' hairs, we had to refer to the mathematical doctrine of chances, or as it would perhaps be more accurately called, the doctrine of averages. Now it is this doctrine which is, we suppose, at the foundation of the popular political creed, that the government of many is better than the government of one. If we could always get the best and the wisest man in the community for our ruler, then we might expect his rule to be more salutary than that of a multitude composed of men, many of whom are neither good nor wise. Were this possible, then we suppose the sound political creed would be that of the old poet:

Ουκ αγαθον πολυκοιρανίη, εις χοιρανός εστω,

Εις βασιλευς.

But in practice it would be altogether impossible always to select the wisest and best man as Governor, and the doctrine of averages has been had recourse to, and men have found that the system of moluxoipavin, or the rule of many, although it may not be so good as would be the rule of the one best and wisest man of the many, or of any one above the average of wisdom and goodness, is so much better than that of any one man below that average, as to afford the best chance or the fairest expectation, of the adoption of salutary measures. Now to the application of this doctrine. If Lord Mornington or Lord Clive, or Colonel Wellesley had been supreme and despotic in the government of India, then the survey would have

This sage

been accomplished at once; but if a certain member of the Finance Committee of the Madras Government had been so supreme, then it would never have been accomplished at all. expressed the sentiment of but too many of his colleagues in office, when he stated that such a survey was utterly unnecessary. On being told that many important places were wrongly laid down in all the existing maps, his answer was, "If I wish to proceed to Seringapatam, I have only to tell the palankeen bearers, and they will find their way to it just as well as if it were ever so accurately placed in the maps." It would perhaps have been too much to expect that a member of a Finance Committee should have been able to understand that a map might be of other uses than to direct a set of palanquin bearers; but such things as these are very apt to make us feel how little valuable is money in the regard of the all-glorious Governor of the Universe, when He permits it so often to be under the control of such men. 66 Buy the truth and sell it not,” is the counsel of the wise man, but if all traders in this commodity were of the spirit of this man, it would soon become, in mercantile phrase, a drug in the market.

All these difficulties were, however, at last surmounted; and Brigade Major Lambton had full permission granted him by the Court of Directors to proceed to action. He seems, as soon as he obtained the consent of the Governor-General, to have ordered from home some instruments in addition to those purchased from Dr. Dinwiddie; but in regard to the early operations there is a confusion in the published accounts, which we have not been able to remove. This is due to the total absence of dates in Lambton's accounts as published in the Asiatic Researches. In other respects, we may mention once for all, they are as clear and definite as possible, and afford all the information that could be desired regarding the mode of conducting the Survey. But the absence of dates is inexcusable in a professedly historical article. It is quite true the measurements are not in the slightest degree affected by the times at which they were made, but to those, who, like us, seek for information as to the history of the work, it is just about as provoking to be unable to assign the times at which the work was accomplished, as it would be if, in studying the results of the measurements, we were unable to assign the places where the measurements were made; for what place is to geography, that time is to history.

We presume our readers are generally acquainted with the great principle of the method adopted in conducting a trigonometrical survey. For the sake, however, of such as may be very nearly ignorant of the subject, we shall give a very brief sketch