n by] the _Times_ will
present a _prima facie_ case of the gravest nature, in the evident
fore-knowledge of the event, and the preparation to turn it to account when
it should have occurred. The article printed on Saturday must have been
written on Friday. That article could not have appeared had the Prince been
intended to live."

Next, it is affirmed that the _Times_ intended to convey the idea that the
Prince had been poisoned.

"Up to this point we are merely dealing with words which the _Times_
publishes, and these can leave not a shadow of doubt that there is an
intention to promulgate the idea that Prince Albert had been poisoned."

The article then goes on with a strange olio of {140} insinuations to the
effect that the Prince was the obstacle to Russian intrigue, and that if he
should have been poisoned,--which the writer strongly hints may have been
the case,--some Minister under the influence of Russia must have done it.
Enough for this record. _Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui
l'admire_:[247] who can he be in this case?

THE NEPTUNE CONTROVERSY.

1846. At the end of this year arose the celebrated controversy relative to
the discovery of Neptune. Those who know it are well aware that Mr.
Adams's[248] now undoubted right to rank with Le Verrier[249] was made sure
at the very outset by the manner in which Mr. Airy,[250] the Astronomer
Royal, came forward to state what had taken place between himself and Mr.
Adams. Those who know all the story about Mr. Airy being arrested in his
progress by the neglect of Mr. Adams to answer a letter, with all the
imputations which might have been thrown upon himself for laxity in the
matter, know also that Mr. Airy's conduct exhibited moral courage, honest
feeling, and willingness to sacrifice himself, if need were, to the
attainment of the ends of private justice, and the establishment of a
national claim. A writer in a magazine, in a long and elaborate article,
argued the supposition--put in every way except downright assertion, after
the fashion of such things--that Mr. Airy had communicated Mr. Adams's
results to M. Le Verrier, with intention that they should be used. His
presumption as to motive is that, had Mr. Adams been recognized, "then the
discovery must have been indisputably an _Englishman's_, and that
Englishman not the Astronomer Royal." Mr. Adams's conclusions were
"retouched in France, and sent {141} over the year after." The proof given
is that