John Herschel,George Airy,and the Roaming Eye of the State

Warren Hastings is quoted in Bernard Cohn S. , Colonialism and its forms of knowledge: The British in India (Princeton, 1996), 45.

Cohn , op. cit. (ref. 1), 4, 49, 80 and 97; Bayly C.A. , “Knowing the country: Empire and information in India”, Modern Asian studies, xxvii (1993), 3–43; Edney Matthew H. , “The patronage of science and the creation of imperial space: The British mapping of India, 1799–1843”, Cartographica, xliv (1993), 61–67, and “British military education, mapmaking and military ‘map mindedness’ in the later Enlightenment”, The cartographic journal, xxxi (1994), 14–20.

For the original notion of “centres of calculation” see Latour Bruno , Science in action: How to follow scientists and engineers through society (Cambridge, Mass., 1987), 215–57. For the idea of the British empire as an archive defined by the quest for universal knowledge, see Richards Thomas , The imperial archive: Knowledge and the fantasy of empire (London, 1993).

Brewer John , “The eighteenth-century British State: Contexts and issues”, in Stone Lawrence (ed.), An imperial state at war: Britain from 1689 to 1815 (London, 1994), 52–71, p. 61.

Cohn , op. cit. (ref. 1), 3–4; Brewer , “The eighteenth-century British state” (ref. 4), 54–56; Colley Linda , Britons: Forging the nation 1707–1837 (St Ives, 1992); Braddick Michael , “State formation and social change in early modern England: A problem stated and approaches suggested”, Social history, xvi (1991), 1–17. For the evolution of lobbying and its impact on State formation see Brewer John , The sinews of power: War, money and the English State, 1688–1783 (London, 1989), 221–49.

Innes Joanna , “The collection of information by government, circa 1690–1800”, paper presented for a discussion group on the Formation of the British State, Somerville College, Oxford, undated. I am grateful to Dr Innes for providing me with a copy of her essay. See also her “The domestic face of the military-fiscal state: Government and society in eighteenth-century Britain”, in Stone (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 4), 96–127. The importance of data collected by revenue-officers is also emphasized in Brewer , The sinews of power (ref. 5), and Hoppit Julian , “Political arithmetic in eighteenth-century England”, Economic history review, xlix (1996), 516–40, pp. 522–3.

Iliffe Robert , “Foreign bodies: ‘Strangers’, natural philosophy and Restoration London”, unpublished paper, Imperial College, London (1994); Hoppit , op. cit. (ref. 6), 534. I am grateful to Dr Iliffe for showing me a copy of his essay. For Joseph Banks and the collection of data see Miller David Philip , “Joseph Banks, empire, and ‘Centers of Calculation’ in late Hanoverian London”, in Miller David Philip Reill Peter Hanns (eds), Visions of empire: Voyages of nature (Cambridge, 1996), 21–37. For the growing link between uniform measurement and centralized administration, see M. Norton Wise's commentary in his The values of precision (Princeton, 1995).

Miller David P. , “The Royal Society of London 1800–1835: A study in the cultural politics of scientific organisation”, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1981, 108–9; and his “The revival of the physical sciences in Britain 1815–1835”, Osiris, 2nd ser., ii (1986), 107–35.

Babbage to Turner Dawson , 24 May 1835, Dawson Turner Papers, Trinity College, Cambridge.

Babbage Charles , The economy of machinery and manufactures (London, 1832), 169; Reflections on the decline of science in England and on some of its causes (1830), reprinted in Campbell-Kelly Martin (ed.), The works of Charles Babbage (11 vols, London, 1989), x, p. xi; The Exposition of 1851, or views of the industry, the science, and the government of England (1851), reprinted ibid., 8–15.

Rosenberg Nathan , “Adam Smith and moral capital”, History of political economy, i (1990), 1–17.

Innes , “The collection and use of information by government” (ref. 6).

Burke Edmund , Reflections on the Revolution in France , ed. with Introduction and notes by Pocock J. G. A. (Indianapolis, 1987), pp. xii, xlvii and xxxviii. For a traditional interpretation of Royal Society reform during the early nineteenth century see Macleod Roy M. , “Whigs and savants: Reflections on the Reform Movement in the Royal Society, 1830–48”, in Inkster Ian Morrell Jack (eds), Metropolis and province: Science in British culture, 1780–1850 (London, 1983), 55–90, p. 57.

For the Astronomical Society and its attack on the Board of Longitude see Ashworth William J. , “The calculating eye: Baily, Herschel, and the business of astronomy”, The British journal for the history of science, xxvii (1994), 409–41, pp. 430–4. The close relationship between astronomy and terrestrial mapping is discussed in Edney Matthew , “Mathematical cosmography and the social ideology of British cartography, 1780–1820”, Imago mundi, xlvi (1994), 104–16. For military servicemen and the Astronomical Society see Miller , “The revival of the physical sciences” (ref. 8), 113–19. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is quoted in Dyer G. P. , “‘One of the best men of business’: Master of the Royal Mint”, in King-Hele D. G. (ed.), John Herschel 1792–1871: A bicentennial commemoration (London, 1992), 105–13, p. 105.

Dupin Charles , The commercial power of Great Britain: Exhibiting a complete view of the public works of this country (2 vols, London, 1825).

Eastwood David , “‘Amplifying the province of the legislative’: The flow of information and the English State in the early nineteenth century”, Journal of the Institute of Historical Research, lxii (1989), 276–94, p. 281. Sir James Macintosh is quoted in Cohn, op. cit. (ref. 1), 46.

Herschel John , A preliminary discourse on the study of natural philosophy (Chicago, 1987; first publ. 1830), 289.

The Geological Society is quoted in Rudwick Martin , “The foundation of the Geological Society of London: Its scheme for co-operative research and its struggle for independence”, The British journal for the history of science, iv (1963), 325–55, p. 336; Herschel , Preliminary discourse (ref. 17), 133.

Herschel , Preliminary discourse (ref. 17), 133–4.

Yeo Richard , “Scientific method and the rhetoric of science in Britain, 1830–1917”, in Schuster John A. Yeo Richard (eds), The politics and rhetoric of scientific method (Dordrecht, 1986), 259–97, p. 265.

Ibid. , 269. However, even within the élite's own division of intellectual labour there was a tension concerning the importance and status of the philosopher and observer; see Ashworth William J. , ‘“Labour harder than thrashing’: John Flamsteed, property and intellectual labour in nineteenth century England”, in Wilmoth Frances (ed.), Flamsteed's stars: New perspectives on the life and work of the first Astronomer Royal (1649–1719) (Woodbridge, 1997), 199–216.

For Francis Bacon and Baconianism in the nineteenth century see Yeo Richard , “An idol of the market-place: Baconianism in nineteenth-century Britain”, History of science, xxiii (1985), 251–98.

Richard Jones is quoted in Berg Maxine , The machinery question and the making of political economy 1815–1848 (Cambridge, 1982), 128; Herschel to William Whewell, 21 September 1834, William Whewell Papers, Trinity College, Cambridge (hereafter cited as Whewell Papers). The following references to Whewell's correspondence are taken from Ashworth William J. (ed.), A calendar of the correspondence of William Whewell (Cambridge: Trinity College, 1996).

Airy George , Popular astronomy: A series of lectures (1848; London, 1866), p. xii; Schaffer Simon , “The nebular hypothesis and the science of progress”, in Moore J. R. (ed.), History, humanity and evolution: Essays in honour of John C. Greene (Cambridge, 1989), 131–64.

Forbes James with Airy George , “National observatories — Greenwich”, The Edinburgh review, clxxxiv (1850), 299–357, p. 349. For Airy at Greenwich see Meadows A. J. , Greenwich Observatory: Recent history (1836–1975) (London, 1975); Chapman Alan , “Sir George Airy (1801–1892) and the concept of international standards in science, timekeeping and navigation”, Vistas in astronomy, xxviii (1985), 321–8; Schaffer Simon , “Astronomers mark time: Discipline and the personal equation”, Science in context, ii (1988), 115–45; Smith Robert W. , “A national observatory transformed: Greenwich in the nineteenth century”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxii (1991), 5–20.

Babbage Charles , “Astronomical lectures”, 1815, Babbage Papers, British Library.

Airy George to Whewell William , 13 April 1857, Whewell Papers.

Smith , op. cit. (ref. 25); Maunder E. Walter , The Royal Observatory Greenwich: A glance at its history and work (London, 1900); Forbes with Airy , op. cit. (ref. 25), 316. For a discussion of the observatory at Pulkowa see Williams M. E. , “Astronomical observatories as practical space: The case of Pulkowa”, in James Frank A. J. L. (ed.), The development of the laboratory: Essays on the place of experiment in industrial civilization (London, 1989), 118–39.

Airy George , Address delivered in the Town Hall of Neath to the members and friends of the Neath Philosophical Institution (London, 1837), 9, 11–12, and 18.

Moore James , “Wallace's Malthusian moment: The common context revisited”, in Lightman Bernard (ed.), Victorian science in context (Chicago, 1997), 290–311, p. 304. Edney has demonstrated the perceived use of surveying as a pedagogical tool to pacify the lower-caste Indians by supposedly teaching them to appreciate their place within the hierarchy of British-ruled India, see his “The patronage of science” (ref. 2), 64.

Forbes with Airy , op. cit. (ref. 25), 349. For Airy and the management of space at Greenwich see Schaffer , op. cit. (ref. 25). For other examples of organizing space around values of vigilance and calculation in a different context see Lindqvist Svante , “Labs in the woods: The quantification of technology during the late Enlightenment”, and Lowood Henry E. Lowood Henry E. , “The calculating forester: Quantification, commercial science, and the emergence of scientific forestry management in Germany”, both of which essays are in Frängsmyr Tore Heilbron John C. Rider Robin E. (eds), The quantifying spirit in the eighteenth century (Los Angeles, 1990); Ashworth William J. , “‘System of terror’: Samuel Bentham, accountability and dockyard reform during the Napoleonic wars”, Social history, xxiii (1998), 63–79. For Augustus De Morgan see his letter to Whewell, 18 March 1847, Whewell Papers.

Airy , Address (ref. 29), 18–19; Herschel , Preliminary discourse (ref. 17), 128–9; Innes , “The collection of information by government” (ref. 6).

With Airy Forbes , op. cit. (ref. 25), 329 and 349–50.

Herschel , Preliminary discourse (ref. 17), 134.

Torrance John , “Social class and bureaucratic innovation: The Commissioners for Examining Public Accounts 1780–1787”, Past & present, lxxviii (1978), 56–81; O'Brien Patrick , “The political economy of British taxation”, Economic history review, xli (1988), 1–32; Brewer , The sinews of power (ref. 5); Edney , “Mathematical cosmography” (ref. 14); Bayly C. A. , Imperial meridian: The British Empire and the world, 1780–1830 (Harlow, 1989); Cain P. J. Hopkins A. J. , British imperialism: Innovation and expansion 1688–1914 (Harlow, 1993).

Beeke Henry , Observations on the produce of the income tax, and on its proportion to the whole income of Great Britain (London, 1800), 91–95 and 140; O'Brien , op. cit. (ref. 35), 22; Bayly , Imperial meridian (ref. 35), 117; Pugh R. B. , “Charles Abbot and the public records: The first phase”, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, xxxix (1966), 69–85. It is worth noting that the Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1812 and 1823, Nicholas Vansittart, “frequently consulted him [Beeke] on financial questions connected with the duties of his office”. And the Ricardian political economist J. R. McCulloch declared that Beeke's observations on income tax were “the best example of the successful application of statistical reasoning to finance that had then appeared”. See the entry for Henry Beeke in the Dictionary of national biography.

Beeke , op. cit. (ref. 36), 2 and 9.

William Roy is quoted in Close Charles F. , The early years of the Ordnance Survey, reprinted with a new Introduction by J. B. Harley (London, 1969), 12; Portlock J. E. , Memoir of the life of Major General Colby (London, 1869), 15–16; Day Archibald , The Admiralty Hydrographic Service 1795–1919 (London, 1967), 27. For mapping and the military during this period see Widmalm Sven , “Accuracy, rhetoric, and technology: The Paris—Greenwich triangulation, 1784–88” in Frängsmyr Heilbron Rider (eds), op. cit. (ref. 31), 179–206.

Edney , “British military education” (ref. 2) and “The patronage of science” (ref. 2); Widmalm , op. cit. (ref. 38).

Thomas Colby is quoted in Close, op. cit. (ref. 38), 94; Edney , “The patronage of science” (ref. 2). For the importance of standardized mathematical tables and the relationship between those seeking them in science and business, see Ashworth , “The calculating eye” (ref. 14).

Close , op. cit. (ref. 38), 119 and 124; Edney , “British military education” (ref. 2). For ex-soldiers as prison guards see Ignatieff Michael , A just measure of pain: The penitentiary in the Industrial Revolution 1750–1850 (London, 1978), 189.

Friendly Alfred , Beaufort of the Admiralty: The life of Sir Francis Beaufort 1774–1857 (London, 1977), 62, 89, 142–3 and 177.

Ibid., 210–12.

Parry W. Edward is quoted in Day, op. cit. (ref. 38), 36. For an account of the Admiralty's activities during this period see Bravo Michael Trevor , “Science and discovery in the Admiralty voyages to the Arctic regions in search of a North-west Passage”, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Cambridge University, 1992.

Day , op. cit. (ref. 38), 263 and 277; Smith Crosbie , “William Hopkins and the shaping of dynamical geology: 1830–1860”, The British journal for the history of science, xx (1989), 22–52, p. 32. Britain's most important “surveyors” were all members of the London Astronomical Society, see Ashworth , “The calculating eye” (ref. 14).

Dupin , op. cit. (ref. 15), p. xviii. It is worth noting that as Minister of Trade, William Huskisson helped Dupin obtain certain documents and Franco-British correspondence, see Bradley Margaret Perrin Fernand , “Charles Dupin's study visits to the British Isles, 1816–1824”, Technology and culture, xxxii (1991), 47–68, p. 66. For the role of the Bank of England in establishing national credit and the financial structure of both the nation and empire, see Cain Hopkins , op. cit. (ref. 35), 63, and Bowen H. V. , “The Bank of England during the long eighteenth century, 1694–1820”, in Roberts Richard Kynaston David (eds), The Bank of England: Money, power and influence 1694–1994 (Oxford, 1995), 1–18.

Hilton Boyd , Corn, cash, commerce: The economic policies of the Tory governments 1815–1830 (Oxford, 1977), 63 and 184: Cain and Hopkins, op. cit. (ref. 35), 84. The French merchant is quoted in Kynaston David , The City of London: A world of its own 1815–1890, i (London, 1994), 57.

Ingham Geoffrey , Capitalism divided? The City and industry in British social development (London, 1984), 122. The ambition to also make London the intellectual centre of the world was built into the constitution of the Royal Society, see Iliffe , op. cit. (ref. 7).

Edney , “The patronage of science” (ref. 2); Bayly ; “Knowing the country” (ref. 2), and Imperial meridian (ref. 35), 125; Cohn , op. cit. (ref. 1), 80–88; Ashworth , “The calculating eye” (ref. 14), 419–20. For the creation and work in sustaining Great Britain see Colley , op. cit. (ref. 5).

Bayly , Imperial meridian (ref. 35), 105, 14, and 161, and his “Knowing the country” (ref. 2); Cohn , op. cit. (ref. 1), especially chap. 2. For the growth of public administration in Britain and related techniques during the eighteenth century see Brewer , The sinews of power (ref. 5).

Cohn , op. cit. (ref. 1), 61; Cain Hopkins , op. cit. (ref. 35), 46 and 98–101.

Cohn , op. cit. (ref. 1), 8, 42, 78–79, and 81–93.

Evans David Deeming Terence J. Hall Betty Goldfarb Stephen (eds), Diaries and correspondence of Sir John Herschel 1834–1838 (San Antonio, 1969), 49.

Herschel John , “Address to the Royal Astronomical Society”, 8 February 1828, in Herschel John , Essays from the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews, with addresses and other pieces (London, 1857), 489–503, p. 491.

Ferguson W. T. Immelman R. F. M. , Sir John Herschel and education at the Cape 1834–1840 (Oxford, 1961), 16–26.

Ibid., 28 and 41.

Ibid., 45 and 47.

Bayly , “Knowing the country” (ref. 2). For Herschel and his integral role in the reform of colonial education in the Cape see his “Letter addressed to the Rev. Dr. Adamson, relative to a course of study in the South African College” (Cape Town, 1835). For his meteorological instructions see his “Instructions for making and registering meteorological observations in Southern Africa and other countries in the South Seas and also at sea” (Cape Town, 1835), 1, and his piece on meteorology is in Herschel J. F. W. Sir (ed.), A manual of scientific inquiry: Prepared for the use of Her Majesty's Navy: And adapted for travellers in general (2nd edn, London, 1851).

Edney , “The patronage of science” (ref. 2), 64. For the Excise Department see Brewer , The sinews of power (ref. 5).

Herschel , A manual of scientific inquiry (ref. 58), pp. iii–iv, 132 and 155–62.

Ibid., 438–50.

Schweber S. S. , (ed.), Aspects of the life and thought of Sir John Frederick Herschel (New York, 1981), 17; Cain Hopkins , op. cit. (ref. 35), 523.