ABSTRACT
When it came time to distribute the 350 gratis copies of the Cape Results, the task of deciding who would receive them was primarily Herschel's. Although Algernon Percy had some say in the distribution process, he limited his expectations to the 13 specially-bound copies allocated for domestic and foreign royalty. The reception of the Cape Results by Louis Phillipe, the King of France, placed Herschel at the center of the continuing political tensions between the governments of their two countries. Relations between these nations were not at the point where the British government was willing to let the French honor Herschel. With the distribution of the Cape Results to foreign heads of state, the British government again tried, and succeeded to a degree, in making the results of Herschel's labors at the Cape colony appear as if they were part of a national scientific and imperial project.
