THE ROYAL SOCIETY 91 



he adversely comments on the truth of the power of cobwebs to 

 catch thrushes 1 . 



At the beginning of Part VII of his Review, which treats 

 of plants, he thrusts very deep. He says, " This is a Branch of 

 Natural Knowledge, which, it will appear, that the Royal Society 

 of London have looked so very deeply into, that their rejecting 

 the Linnean System of Botany, when offered by its Author will 

 no longer be wondered at." 



In this Part he is particularly severe upon Baker, and, in 

 reading it, one is forced to the conclusion that although adverse 

 criticism was warranted, there was a good deal of personal feeling 

 behind it. 



This attack on the Royal Society appears to have been much 

 resented, and Hill's credit consequently was much damaged, for 

 it was considered that Folkes and Baker had befriended him in 

 his earlier days. With regard to Folkes it has been seen that 

 Hill considered that he was doing a public duty ; and with 

 regard to Baker, Hill suffered under a real or imaginary grievance 

 which, assuming Baker had helped him in the past, cancelled all 

 obligations due from him to Baker. If this be not so then Hill, 

 in addition to his other faults, was lacking in gratitude. With 

 regard to this point his anonymous biographer 2 wrote that " we 

 have nowhere learnt that ingratitude had the smallest share in 

 the composition of the character of Sir John Hill." 



The attack, however, was not altogether fruitless, as Disraeli 3 

 remarks, "Yet Sir John Hill, this despised man, after all the 

 fertile absurdities of his literary life, performed more for the 

 improvement of the Philosophical Transactions, and was the 

 cause of diffusing a more general taste for the science of botany, 

 than any other contemporary." 



It is hardly necessary to remark that Hill was never elected 

 to the Royal Society. 



Thus by his methods of criticism Hill brought to an end 

 a period of highly remunerative literary work ; it was therefore 

 necessary for him to seek other pastures. He returned, in part, 



1 See Bates, The Naturalist on the River Amazons. Edited by Ed. Clodd; 

 London, 1892, p. 80. 2 Short Life, lot. cit. 3 Loc. cit. 



