43 



FIFTH MEETING. 



RoTAL Institution. — December 15, 1851. 



J. B. YATES, Esq., F.S.A., &c., President, in the chair. 



Mr. James Newlands was elected an Ordinary Member. 



Mr. Nisbett exliibited some seeds called Coracco Nuts, from the 

 Calabar coast, where, from the stimulating quality of an essential 

 aromatic oil, which enters lai'gely into their composition, they are used 

 in the cure of sore throats. 



Mr. John Leigh Clare exhibited, and the President read from the 

 Chair, the following interesting original document, entitled, " Instruc- 

 tions to Col. James Monroe, Minister Plenipotentiary to the 

 Republic of France:" — 



"Philadelphia, June 10, 1794. 



" Sir, 



•' You have been nominated as the successor of Mr. Gouvemeur 

 Morris, in the office of Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of 

 America to the Republic of France, from a confidence, that, while you 

 keep steadily in view the necessity of rendering yourself acceptable to 

 that government, you will maintain the self-respect due to our own. In 

 doing the one and the other of these things, your own prudence and 

 understanding must be the guides, after first possessing yourself of the 

 real sentiments of the Executive relative to the French nation. 



•* The President has been an eaiiy and decided friend of the French 

 Revolution, and whatever reason there may have been, under our 

 ignorance of facts and policy, to suspend an opinion upon some of its 

 important transactions, yet is he immutable in his wishes for its accom- 

 plishment, incapable of assenting to the right of any foreign prince to 

 meddle with its interior arrangements, and persuaded that success will 

 attend their efforts, and particularly that union among themselves is an 

 impregnable barrier against external assaults. 



" How the French Government, when it shall be no longer attacked 

 by foreign arms, \\ill ultimately settle, is a point not yet reduced to any 

 absolutely certain expectation. The gradation of pubHc opinion fh)m 



