him. The world began anxiously to inquire what were his requisites for this exalted station; but did not then receive a very satisfactory answer. He was known to be a man of enterprise and of strong passions; a warm friend while his friends were subservient to his purposes, and, if otherwise, what Dr. Johnson denominated "a good hater." He was notoriously fond of farming, fond of grazing, fond of gardening, fond of "damming and sinking," and fond of domineering; these, however, were qualifications for the office so dubious that the public naturally sought for something. more. What, they asked, has he published? Where are the volumes that bear his name? When they were answered, " Nowhere," they asked again, What are his pamphlets, and on what subjects? Where are his papers in the Philosophical Transactions of the Society over which you have appointed him to preside, and on what do they treat? To these and such inquiries no answer could then be returned and if similar questions were now to be proposed, his friends would have little else to say, except they felt inclined to exult in his little Essay on blight, and perhaps a disquisition or two on the manufactory of gooseberry-wine, or something like it, in the Horticultural Transactions.

Indeed, during the whole course of his long presidency he evinced an absolute ignorance of several of the most interesting and useful sciences. Of mathematics, either pure or mixed, he knew nothing. The sublime investigations of Landen, Euler, Lagrange and Laplace, had no more charms for Sir Joseph, than for the rudest peasant that laboured on his Lincolnshire estates. Nor was he merely ignorant of these sciences. He had a dislike to them; and for many years indicated this dislike by some waspish and petulant expression from the chair whenever a mathematical paper was read. Up to more than forty years of age, I am positively assured that he knew scarcely any thing of chemistry; but in this department of knowledge, it was afterwards said, he made a respectable proficiency. Natural history has been generally acknowledged to be the only study which he pursued with ardour and relish; yet even here, if I am correctly informed, he made no eminent attainments. A friend of mine had an opportunity, a few years ago, of ascertaining the opinion of a very competent judge, one of the most eminent members of the Linnæan Society, as to this point. The following is an account of what passed between them.

a This strange phrase was one which Sir Joseph delighted to give in the shape of a toast, among the Lincolnshire farmers. "Success to damming and sinking," meant success to draining the fens; but then it was delivered in an enigmatic approximation to profanity, by which he thought he lost no reputation as a gentleman and a philosopher.

Q. Will you allow me, sir, to ask what is your opinion of Sir Joseph Banks as a man of science?

A. I should conceive, sir, there cannot be much need to ask such a question. You know he is called the patron of science.

Q. Yes, I know he is: but that does not prove that he possesses it. I have some doubts about the matter, and take the liberty to inquire of you, as one who knows him well. Is he really eminent ás a natural historian?

A. He has a very extensive and valuable library in the department of natural history.

Q. So I have always understood: but pardon me, sir, this does not meet my question. Allow me to ask again, Is he really eminent as a natural historian?

A. Natural history is a very comprehensive classification of knowledge; what department of it do you principally allude to?

Q. Really, sir, I scarcely know how to direct my inquiries to a narrower point, as I am but little conversant with these matters. I have understood, however, that he is an eminent botanist: what is your opinion on that head?

A. Why, if he be so reckoned, it must have been in a company of washerwomen!

Thus terminated the inquiry. Well, but, say some, If Sir Joseph was not a man of profound knowledge in any one department, or of an excursive turn of mind which made him at least speciously acquainted with several, we presume he was a man of address, and probably one with some pretensions to eloquence. We presume he trod in the steps of his predecessor with regard to the anniversary oration on assigning the Copleian medal. No such thing. For some years Sir Joseph made no attempt of the kind: but it having been insinuated, in the course of the discussions of which I shall presently have to speak, that he was incompetent to prepare and deliver a set discourse on any subject,-to put to silence these impudent calumniators, he delivered an address at the anniversary, November 30, 1784. In that year the medal was assigned to Dr. Waring, for one of his papers On the Summation of Series. Of the address delivered on that occasion I have the happiness to possess a copy, probably the only one now in existence: to gratify the natural curiosity of the public on so interesting a matter, I here present the speech, retaining, bona fide, the original orthography, punctuation, &c. a

a I hold myself answerable for the authenticity of this curious document. No sooner had Sir Joseph terminated this address than a murmur of Rigmarol! Rigmarol! ran through "the faction," as they were termed. Some of the President's less judicious partisans immediately proposed the publication of his "admirable speech;" but they were outvoted by such of his friends as were too wise to risk his reputation, and that of the society, on such a strange pro

[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 who 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