Sir Joseph Banks, Barf. \^. 



the sciences as they ought, but also to amuse their leisure, by 

 informing themselves of the discussions to which they give rise, 

 it can only be on condition that they do not make their rank 

 interfere in support of the opinions which they adopt. The 

 representations of Pringle were not received with the gracious- 

 ness to which he was accustomed ; and, as this unhappy quarrel 

 had already, for three years, involved him in a thousand bick- 

 erings, he considered it advisable, for his peace, to give in his 

 resignation. It was in his place that Mr Banks was chosen in 

 the month of November 1778. On what side he had placed 

 himself in the war of electrical points and knobs, we do not well 

 know ; but this much every body will comprehend, that, under 

 such circumstances, it was impossible for him to attain the 

 presidency, without encountering many enemies. The circum- 

 stance of Mr Banks enjoying the favour of the august person- 

 age, whom his predecessor had offended, was employed by his 

 enemies against him ; moreover he was rich and young, and al- 

 though he had done more for science than many writers, he had 

 written little. What motives and pretexts for attacking him ! 

 What disgrace (it was said) for England and the mathematics I 

 a mere amateur to fill the seat of Newton ! as if it could have been 

 hoped that another Newton should ever occupy it. A naturalist 

 to be put at the head of the mathematics ! as if it were not just 

 that each science should, in its turn, obtain honours propor- 

 tioned to the fruits which it produced. By degrees these mur- 

 murs degenerated into animosities ; at length, on the occasion of 

 a law that required the secretaries to reside in London, and of 

 which the consequence was the resignation of Dr Hutton, Pro- 

 fessor of Mathematics in the school of Woolwich, these animo- 

 sities burst forth into a violent tempest. Dr Horsley, a learned 

 mathematician and ardent theologian, who was afterwards, suc- 

 cessively. Bishop of St David's and of Rochester, became the 

 principal organ of the opposition. He delivered discourses and 

 published writings remarkable for their asperity ; he predicted 

 all the misfortunes imaginable to the society and to science ; and, 

 supported by some members of more consideration than himself, 

 such as the astronomer Maskelyne, he thought himself at the 

 point of overturning Mr Banks. Fortunately it was perceived 

 that he also had in view to place himself in the chair, a discovery 



