[We have not room for this strange speech-strange, from the head of a scientific society, as containing not a single indication of science,-more strange for the verbosity with which the intended ideas are conveyed,-and uncommonly strange for the ignorance of orthography betrayed.]

By this time the reader will probably inquire with eagerness, Through what strange train of circumstances could an individual, so sadly disqualified, be elevated to "the chair" of the Royal Society? This train, intricate and involved as it has usually been deemed, it will not now be difficult to explore.

Some of the most brilliant discoveries in electricity, were, as every one knows, made by the celebrated Dr. FRANKLIN; and, at an age of the world when this country was agitated by all the trying events of a war with America, Dr. Franklin had the misfortune to be an American. Among this philosopher's numerous happy applications of his electrical discoveries, was that of elevated pointed conductors to secure buildings from injury by lightning; an application which was warmly approved, and eagerly recommended by the most eminent electricians then living. In luckless hour, however, Mr. Benjamin Wilson (the father, I believe, of the present Sir Robert Wilson, and at that time, or soon after, contractor for the painting under the Honourable Board of Ordnance) objected to the use of pointed conductors, recommending instead of them conductors with knobs at their superior extremities. "It was by his obstinacy and improper conduct, (says Dr. Thomson, a) that he introduced those unhappy divisions which had so unfortunate an effect upon the Royal Society, and were so disgraceful to science and philosophy." Disgraceful, indeed, they were, both on account of the temper with which they were conducted, and the incessant violation of the principles of true philosophy which occurred in the writings of Mr. Wilson and his adherents. Philosophers in other parts of Europe wondered what strange fatality could have fallen upon English men of science, that they could force this into a topic of controversy; and neither then nor since have they uttered a syllable in favour of blunt conductors. b The truth, however, is, that had it not been for the intermixture of political feeling with the principles of the discussion, it could not have been kept alive for a single month. The American war had been the occasion of scattering the seeds of political animosity far and wide; and, since Franklin was a politician as well as a philoduction. It was simply determined, therefore, that the President's copy of the speech should be lodged in the archives of the society. On the succeeding day a friend of mine made faithfully and carefully the copy which I now possess. A few days afterwards other fellows of the Society visited the rooms in order to take copies; but the document was removed, by the President or his friends, and has never since been seen.

a History of the Royal Society, p. 444.

b See Biot-Traité de Physique, tom. ii. pp. 442--450.

sopher, it was by no means difficult to insinuate, that they whe agreed with him in his philosophical speculations, agreed with him, likewise, in his political creed. Thus, with many, the opinions of a philosopher as to the blunts and the points, were regarded as the index of his opinions as to the American war; and the celebrated dispute among the "little" and the "big-endians" recorded by Lemuel Gulliver, furnished an apt representation of the folly and the rancour which found their way into this discussion.

Ere long, the Royal Patron of the Society, whose strong feeling in reference to the American war is well known, became interested in the controversy, and often gave unequivocal indications of the manner in which he was anxious to see it decided. This soon reduced it to neither more nor less than a Government question. In 1773, when it was proposed to fix conductors to the powder magazine belonging to the Board of Ordnance at Purfleet, that Board applied to the Royal Society for their opinion as to the most proper kind to be employed. The society replied by quoting their own annual advertisement from the year 1762 downward, "That it is an established rule of the Society, to which they will always adhere, never to give their opinion, as a body, on any subject either of nature or art, that comes before them." The Society were then requested to appoint a Committee, for this purpose. After much discussion this was agreed to, and a committee, consisting of Mr. Cavendish, Dr. Watson, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Robertson, and Mr. Wilson, was appointed. After examining the building, the four genthemen first named, recommended pointed conductors: Mr. Wilson dissented from their judgment, and assigned his reasons in a long paper. His notions were refuted by Nairne, Henley, Swift, and others. Dr. Musgrave, on the other hand, defended his speculations. In 1777 the Purfleet magazine received damage from lightning, although it had been previously furnished with conductors. The Royal Society, again requested to give an opinion, appointed a Committee of nine of the most distinguished electricians: their deliberate judgment was again in favour of pointed conductors, and again was their judgment opposed by Mr. Wilson. In this stage of the business the Royal Patron of the Society directed Sir John Pringle to employ his official influence in strengthening Mr. Wilson's hands. Sir John replied, that "duty as well as inclination would always induce him to execute His Majesty's wishes to the utmost of his power: but, Sire, (said he) I cannot reverse the laws and operations of nature." "Then," said his Majesty, "perhaps, Sir John, you had better resigna ?" Sir John took the hint, and a Soon after this occurrence a friend of Franklin wrote an epigram which may not be deemed unworthy of preservation here:

While you, great George, for knowledge hunt,
And sharp conductors change for blunt,

The nation's out of joint:

resigned at the next anniversary, Sir Joseph Banks being appointed his successor the same evening. Whether he had or had not engaged to reverse the laws of nature, I am not prepared to say.

Sir Joseph was no sooner seated in the President's chair than he began to manifest his dislike of Americans and American philosophy, and of all those members who accidentally testified their esteem of his learned predecessor. He also gave the most decisive indicationsof his philosophical bigotry, of his determination, unduly to exalt some branches of inquiry, and as unduly to depreciate others; and of another determination, which he had not sufficient discretion to disguise, to convert a fellowship or brotherhood of philosophers, into a monarchy, or rather into a despotism of which he alone was to be the focus of power and authority. Such is the force of self-delusion, when a coterie of sycophantic danglers surround an individual of this description, and foster his love of domination, that it would seem as though Sir Joseph actually fancied himself a kind of monarch, and formed his phraseology and expected to be approached accordingly. It was no longer the Council of the Royal Society, or the Secretaries of that learned body, but, "My Council," "My Secretaries," "My Assessors," "MY Society," &c. He held his court in Soho Square; and none but those who were introduced into the regal apartments there in due form, and danced attendance with due frequency, could obtain admission into the Royal Society, or continue to attend its meetings with comfort, if they had been elected Fellows in better days.

That men of real genius and science should be disgusted with all this, was naturally to be expected; as well as that men of independence should make some efforts to deliver themselves from so disgraceful a thraldom. Hence originated the new class of dissentions which agitated the Royal Society between the years 1781 and 1785, and to which the eulogists of Sir Joseph Banks have now so unwisely recalled the public attention.b

"The bitter spirit' (as the writer in the New Times calls it) did

Franklin a wiser course pursues,

And all your thunder useless views

By keeping to the point.

a This anti-American spirit is scarcely yet extinguished. [If it be, there is no proof that their Scientific spirit has increased.] Seven years ago there were not more than three American Fellows of the Royal Society; and even at the present moment there are not six.

b A biographer of Sir Joseph Banks in the New Times of July 14, 1820, whose ignorance of science and of facts is so obvious, that it would be a waste of time to render it more prominent, terminates his misrepresentation of these matters, thus:

"All intellectual propensities have their merits, [those of lying, slandering and thieving, for example,] and the use of practical mathematics is important and extensive. We honour the great inventors-the world is debtor to NEW

not break out on the dismissal of Dr. Hutton from one of the secretaryships,' but much earlier. Some of the causes which fomented it will appear by a few quotations from a pamphlet entitled "An History of the Instances of Exclusion from the Royal Society," published early in 1784.

"The charge we bring against Sir Joseph Banks is,that, though not intrusted with any such power, either by statute or custom, and very unfit, from his acknowledged violence of temper and from his incapacity to judge of literary qualifications, in which he is himself shamefully deficient, to be intrusted with it, he has repeatedly interposed in a clandestine manner, to procure rejections of proper candidates, with the visible design of taking away the privilege of the body at large, and making himself the sole master of the admissions,-in other words, the monarch of the Society."

In proof of this charge, we are told that during the twelve weeks which, according to the statutes, the certificate recommending a candidate hung up in the Society's rooms, it was the habit of Sir Joseph to prejudice the minds of those who attended the Soho Square levees, by making known his resolution in phraseology not TON. But of a thousand mathematicians, not the human cube root has ever been, or will be, more than the depository of the dusty problems, that the bookmakers of the art, the SIMPSONS, and HUTTONS, and BONNYCASTLES, have transmitted to them. This pride that puffeth up,' has had more fatal powers of perversion, and religion has no where found more inveterate prejudice or more morbid repulsion than among those men, rendered incapable of discerning truth unless it came in the whole dignity of an algebraic formula. The bitter spirit broke out in the Royal Society on the dismissal of Dr. HUTTON from one of the secretaryships. How Dr. HUTTON, whose life, till he was mature, was spent in keeping a village school in Westmoreland, [videlicet, the village of Newcastle upon Tyne,] could have sustained the office without numberless offences against the habits of good society it is difficult to conjecture; and his merits as a mathematician were common-place.

'Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,

And even the saying ran, that he could gauge.'

"Sir JOSEPH BANKS, in point of general accomplishment, public utility, and rational and enlarged employment of his understanding, was worth the whole host, of which no single name did honour even to their own narrow pursuit. HORSLEY, afterwards a bishop, was the principal among the disturbers. His Commentary on the Principia, the most meagre and inefficient that ever came from the press, is this man's tribute to science. But he was virulent, insolent and intriguing. The Bench restrained him, and he gradually cooled, but in the hostility against Sir JOSEPH BANKS he gave full way to the bitterness of his nature. The President's conduct was put to the vote, and on the 8th of January, 1784, the Resolution" that this Society do approve of Sir JOSEPH BANKS for their President, and will support him," was carried by a great majority. Measures of conciliation were now adopted. A vote was passed, that Dr. HUTTON had done nothing to forfeit the confidence of the Society: and, on the other hand, that it would be more convenient to have his office executed by a resident in London. Since that period opposition has slept. The Presidency has been in honour and activity."

very courtly, but suited to the purpose and varied to accord with the occasion. "We want no mathematicians." "No more worshippers of old Cardan for me.' "I'll have no schoolmasters." "Let us have no country surgeons." "He! why he is an author! Who could think of proposing him? We want no authors ;" and so on. If these, and similar remarks, scattered with great activity during the twelve weeks' probation, seemed likely to fail in their effect, then "the President would run about the room on a night of election, out of breath with anger and impatience, seducing the ignorant, awing the timid, and deceiving the wise; cajoling as many as possible to put in black balls:" and often "inducing the candidate or his friends, from an apprehension of rejection, to avoid the mortification by taking down the certificate."

Among the candidates rejected principally by black-balling, in the years 1781, 1782, and 1783, were, Mr. Henry Clarke, of Manchester; Mr. Meyrick (by the President asking more than 100 persons in the room to vote against him;) Dr. Bates, a physician at Buckingham; Dr. Hallifax; Dr. Enfield (here the cry was "I'll have no Dissenters ;") Dr. Berenbrock and Dr. Blane, two eminent physicians; and Major Desbarres, the friend and maritime tutor of Captain Cook. Shortly after the "black-balling" of this latter named gentleman, the following paragraph appeared in the public papers:

"Yesterday Major Desbarres kissed His Majesty's hand on being appointed Governor of Nova Scotia. This reward, we hear, has been conferred on this able and spirited officer, for great national services, in recompense of much time and much money, for having saved by his philosophical labours, many of the king's ships, and the lives of many of our fellow subjects."

ART. I.-2. The Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature, by ABRAHAM REES, D. D. F. R. S. F. L. S. S. Amer. Soc.; with the Assistance of eminent professional Gentlemen; 4to. 39 volumes, besides 5 volumes of Plates, and 1 of Atlas. Longman. London.

It would be unpardonable in us to pass without notice the comple tion of a Work, which has occupied upwards of eighteen years in its publication; and which, far more than any other single work which has preceded it, or that perhaps has been contemporary with it, has extended the bounds of useful knowledge; by putting upon record, and making accessible to general readers, the improvements made and making, in nearly every branch of Science and of the Arts, particularly all those of the latter, which have Chemistry or Mechanics for their basis. The numerous plates (by Lowry) VOL. II.

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