ASTRONOMERS SENT TO THE EAST INDIES.

In the midst of these alarms some regard was paid to the improvements of natural knowledge. The Royal Society having made application to the king, representing that there would be a transit of Venus over the disc of the sun, on the sixth day of June; and that there was reason to hope the parallax of that planet might be more accurately determined by making proper observations of this phenomenon at the island of St. Helena, near the coast of Africa, and at Bencoolen in the East Indies, his majesty granted a sum of money to defray the expense of sending able astronomers to those two places, and ordered a ship of war to be equipped for their conveyance. Accordingly, Mr. Nevil Maskelyne and Mr. Robert Waddington were appointed to make the observations at St. Helena; and Mr. Charles Mason and Mr. Jeremiah Dixon undertook the voyage to Bencoolen, on the island of Sumatra.*

* In the beginning of April, the king granted to his
grandson prince Edward Augustus, and to the heirs male of
his royal highness, the dignities of duke of the kingdom of
Great Britain, and of earl of the kingdom of Ireland, by the
names, styles, and titles, of duke of York and Albany, and
earl of Ulster.