Genre:

Introduction, Drollery; Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

Astronomy, Discovery, Expertise, Politics

    Asserts that, like Virgil, Prime Mininster Henry J Temple (3rd Viscount Palmerston) has given 'a sketch of "Civis Romanus" [Roman citizen], according to [his] notion of the qualities implied in the word'. Reproduces what it claims is Palmerston's poem, which compares the achievements of Britain to those of France. The poem includes the lines 'Let us grant without scruple Leverrier / Out-telescopes Adams by far. / What's the odds? The more planets the merrier, / And Neptune can't be a French star'.