H. J. J.
Astronomical Query.—You style your paper a medium of communication between literary men, &c. I trust this does not exclude one of my sex from seeking information through the same channel.
We have had additions to our solar system by the discovery of four planets within the last few years. Supposing that these planets obey the same laws as the larger ones, they must be at all times apparently moving within the zodiac; and considering the improvements in telescopes within the last seventy years, and the great number of scientific observers at all times engaged in the pursuit of astronomy both in Europe and North America, I am at a loss to understand why these planets were not discovered before.
I suppose we may not consider them as new creations attached to our solar system, because the law of perturbations on which Mr. Herschel
discourses at length, in the eleventh chapter of his Treatise on Astronomy, would seem to demonstrate that they would interfere with the equilibrium of the solar system.
Would some of your scientific contributors condescend to explain this matter, so as to remove the ignorance under which I labour in common with, I believe, many others?
Leonora.
Liverpool.
Chaplains to Noblemen.—Under what statute, if any, do noblemen appoint their chaplains? and is there any registry of such appointments in any archiepiscopal or episcopal registry?
X.