the 8th of January; at which meeting the following motion was made and seconded: "That this society do approve of Sir Joseph Banks for their President, and will support him." This motion was warmly opposed in a very sensible speech by Mr. Edward Poore. He was followed on the same side by Mr. Baron Maseres; to whom succeeded Dr. Horsley, who, in a very modest manner, mentioned the time he had devoted, the contributions he had made, and the high office he had borne in the Society. This he did as a presumptive evidence that he would not be willing to disturb the peace of the Society, and call off its attention from his own favourite pursuits. But abuses he alleged had been long practised, and were still increasing, which must affect the honour and prosperity of the Society, which in fact threatened its very existence, and for which debate was the only remedy. The following address to the President was peculiarly excellent, and strongly characteristic of the speaker's manner:

"Sir, if I should consider the motion as a mere compliment to the President, having neither retrospect nor consequences, I would be one of the foremost to concur in it. For, Sir, whatever warmth of resentment I may be apt to feel and to express, when I conceive the character of my friend to be injuriously attacked; with whatever zeal, with whatever vehemence of zeal, I may be ready to rise, when the chartered rights of this Society are to be asserted, when its constitution is to be defended against encroachments; I am still ambitious to seize every fair occasion of expressing personal respect to Sir Joseph Banks. And I feel it a most painful task, which my duty to the Society, imposes on me, to arraign and to expose his conduct, in the high office which he does us the honour to hold among us. Sir, it has been suggested to me, by gentlemen who conceive that debate is the worst thing which can happen in this Society, that if the abuses with which I charge the P.esident's government do really exist, I might take a ́better and a more effectual way of obtaining the remedy: of accomplishing what they consider to be my ultimate purpose, by communicating my opinion to the members of the Society in private visits and I am really inclined to think that this is very good advice. If my intention were to cure the abuses of the President's govern ment by preventing the renovation of his authority next

T#2

St.

St. Andrew's day, I do think that this purpose might be more certainly carried in the way which has been recommended to me. But, Sir, I believe you will yourself allow, that the method which I now pursue of public debate and discussion, if a less certain, is a far more fair and honourable way. You would rather, Sir, that I should make your plan of government a topic of pub lic debate, than that I should calumniate your character in private. This, therefore, is the method to which I shall adhere as the most honourable. I must, therefore, however unwillingly, speak to the merits of the question now before us and if I should bring forward offensive matter, I must entreat your candid hearing. You are a public man in this Society: your conduct, therefore, must be subject to revision: and you must bear with an adversary who charges you publicly, because he disdains to wound in secret.'

In another part of this admirable speech, in allusion to this irregular mode of voting support to the President, the doctor observed,

"As for those optimists, who hold Sir Joseph Banks to be the best of all possible Presidents to be found in this best of all possible worlds, let them come down at the next anniversary, and re-elect him. That will be the season for giving him support. At present no support can be given him, unless it be the unjust support of approving the conduct towards Dr. Hutton, which the Society, hath already condemned or of securing him against all future complaint by a general vote of approbation."

The speaker then goes on to vindicate Dr. Hutton, after which he proceeds to the adduction of his charges against the President, particularly with regard to the influencing of elections, eight very strong and flagrant instances of which he entered into the particular history of, but was at last borne down by an incessant clamour for the question on the part of the President's friends, with an accompaniment of sticks. In the midst of this indecent confusion, so unworthy of any meeting, and particularly a philosophical one, Dr. Horsley indignantly closed his speech, in the following strong

terms:

"Sir, since it is the resolution of your friends, that I am not to be heard upon an argument, to which they are conscious that they can frame no reply, I shall strug

gle

gle no longer, with their clamour. I shall say but a few words more. Sir, it would be absurd to vote for the present question without a discussion of its merits. Approbation is no approbation, unless it be accompanied with a conviction that it is deserved, on the part of those who bestow it. Sir, I well know the generosity of your high spirit will reject an approbation voted in ignorance. Sir, you will say to us, Give me no approbation till you are satisfied that I deserve it. Approbation given, while a suspicion may remain that it is undeserved, is a false compliment.

Falsus honor juvat

Quem nisi mendosum et mendacem?

Let the charges which have been set up against my conduct, be fairly discussed and fully investigated. When they are found to be groundless and nugatory, then give me your approbation. Your approbation given then will gratify me; because it will be at the same time an upprobation of me, and a censure of those who have dared, without cause, to arraign my conduct. Approbation given now, before these charges are done away, were prema ture. It will not gratify me. It will offend. These, Sir, I know to be your sentiments. I concur with you in these sentiments: and I move the previous question."

Dr. Maskelyne rose next, and after a short speech, seconded the motion for the previous question. Lord Mulgrave having said, that "some broad hints might be necessary to convince the gentlemen who seemed so active in promoting these dissentions, how highly their conduct was disapproved by the majority of the Society;" Dr. Horsley rose in some warmth, and addressed the President in these words:

Sir, what has fallen from the noble lord, seems so directedly pointed at me, that I must beg leave to say a few words, to inform the noble lord what may be the effect of broad hints. Sir, we see and confess the extent of the President's personal interest. We see that great numbers my be occasionally brought down, to. ballot upon particular questions, who do not honour the Society with a very regular attendance. We are well aware, Sir, that oppressive statutes may be framed in the council, and, with this support in the Society at large, received. We understand, that motions, personally offen

sive

sive and injurious, may be brought forward, and perhaps may be carried. And by these means the remedies, which the scientific part of the Society would wish to apply to the abuses which exist, may be prevented. But, Sir, I am united with a respectable and numerous band, embracing, I believe, a majority of the scientific part of this Society: of those who do its scientific business. Sir, we shall have one remedy in our power, when all others fail. If other remedies should fail, we can at last SECEDE. Sir, when the hour of secession comes, the President will be left with his train of feeble Amateurs, and that toy* upon the table, the GHOST of that society in which philosophy once reigned, and Newton presided as her mi

mister."

On putting the previous question, the numbers were, for it 59, against it 106, the President's own vote included. The main question was then put, and the members were against it 42, for it 119. The President's

own vote in his own cause again included.

Further efforts were made by Dr. Horsley and the other friends of Dr. Hutton to procure his re-establishment, and to check the increasing despotism of the President, but without effect. A new stretch of power was soon afterwards exhibited, of which the following account appeared in the "Public Advertiser of April 6, 1784."

"We hear that the President of the Royal Society has given fresh disgust to several of the fellows of it, by a step he has just taken concerning the office of one of the principal secretaries, which has lately become vacant by the resignation of the Rev. Mr. Maty. He has sent round a card to all the fellows of the Society, (to whom the election of a new secretary belongs), to inform them, that Dr Blagden (a respectable and learned physician) has offered himself a candidate for the office, at his desire, and to recommend him to their choice. This expression at his desire, seems to imply that no person ought to presume to be a candidate without his approbation, or even be supposed to have any chance of succeeding with -out it, or of failing of success when he has obtained it: which are implications that are by no means agreeable to the more independent members of the Society. This card is called by many of them, the President's Congé

*Pointing to the mace.

d'Elire. Dr. Horsley, in particular, gave it that title publicly at the meeting of the Society at Somerset Place, on Thursday last, the 1st of this instant April, 1784. 'It is,' said he, a call upon the Society to elect a new secretary, and a nomination by the President, as their sovereign, of the person he would have them choose; which is exactly similar to the proceeding of the King in the nomination of a new Bishop."

In a very ingenious pamphlet written by Mr. Maty, one of the Minority, entituled "An History of the Instances of Exclusion from the Royal Society, which were not suffered to be argued in the late Debates," are these observations on this unphilosophical warfare:

"The Royal Society was a Society; we do not wish to see it a monarchy; it did conduct itself according to the rules of justice and equity: we desire it may not violate those rules; its principles were, that the first distinction of men is virtue, and the second learning; we cannot bear that birth should take rank with either of these. Now, the President does think that it ought; and therefore it is proper to look out for one, who, with Sir Joseph Banks's merits, be those merits what they may, does not think so." The conclusion of the same tract, which though written by Mr. Maty, was drawn up, under the inspection, and expressed the sentiments of the whole respectable minority, is as follows:

"If indeed the dignity of the Society has been committed, and if our learned brethren of Europe, have indeed reason to lament, that we stand no longer on that high eminence where they loved to see us; it was then committed, when, for the first time, and with a fatal example to literature, an example that has been but too much followed, we suffered our chair, which ever before had been offered to unassuming modesty, to be claimed and publicly canvassed for through this great town; it was committed when we received into that chair, the chair of Newton, a gentleman who had not published a single line in our Transactions, nor given any sign of literary merit, but what might have been given by one of the humblest of the votaries of the humblest of the sciences; it was committed when we sent forth to Europe, at the head of our learned volume, a speech of that gentleman, deficient in English, deficient in idea, full of fulsome and undignified adulation of ourselves, mean and inadequate in expressions of respect and grati

tude