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The distance of the moon from the earth is just now the subject of re-measurement. The Inferior Planets. When the telescope was invented, the phases of Venus attracted much attention; but the brightness of this planet, and her proximity to the sun, as with Mercury also, seemed to be a bar to the discovery of markings by which the axis and period of rotation could be fixed.

An inch rule is taken up and passed over the separated parts for comparison; some slight expression of amazement passes over James's features, re-measurement ensues, and turning to his chief he remarks, "I didn't see that at first, sir, it's worse than that old Brescian; just look here, sir, the ribs are not upright, but bending inwardly; across the upper part they are so much out of the perpendicular that when the upper table is laid carefully on, instead of there being the eighth of an inch of overlapping border it is nearly a quarter of an inch each side; and what is more curious, the ribs do not seem to have been unglued since they were first put there, excepting a small part at the upper and lower ends, and see, sir, when I put the upper table on it is like an arch, and to press that part down on to the ribs will send a crack along from the sound hole on either side, which will simply be breaking up the whole affair by degrees."

Such a design involved a complete re-measurement and re-valuation of all the land of the Generality, and this was a task of immense magnitude and difficulty. It was very imperfectly performed, and Turgot found the province groaning under a mass of fiscal anomalies and disorders. Assessment, collection, exemption, were all alike conducted without definite principles or uniform system.