I urged very
strongly that it should be published immediately, but she resisted it as
strongly, though she could but acknowledge her conviction that it was a
comet. She remarked to me, 'If it is a new comet, our friends, the
Bonds, have seen it. It may be an old one, so far as relates to the
discovery, and one which we have not followed.' She consented, however,
that I should write to William C. Bond, which I did by the first mail
that left the island after the discovery. This letter did not reach my
friend till the 6th or 7th, having been somewhat delayed here and also
in the post-office at Cambridge.
"Referring to my journal I find these words: 'Maria will not consent to
have me announce it as an original discovery.'
"The stipulations of His Majesty have, therefore, not been complied
with, and the peculiar circumstances of the case, her sex, and isolated
position, may not be sufficient to justify a suspension of the rules.
Nevertheless, it would gratify me that the generous monarch should know
that there is a love of science even in this to him remote corner of the
earth. "I am thine, my dear friend, most truly,
"WILLIAM MITCHELL."
* * * * *
HON. EDWARD EVERETT TO PROFESSOR SCHUMACHER, AT ALTONA.
"Cambridge, 15th January, 1848.
"DEAR SIR: Your letter of the 27th October, accompanying the
'Planeten-Circulaer,' reached me but a few days since.
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