I JOSEPH PRIESTLEY 7 



Priestley communicated the extensive series of 

 observations wliicli his industry and ingenuity had 

 accumulated, in the course of four years, to the 

 Eoyal Society, under the title of " Observations 

 on Different Kinds of Air " — a memoir which was 

 justly regarded of so much merit and importance, 

 that the Society at once conferred upon the author 

 the highest distinction in their power, by awarding 

 him the Copley Medal. 



In 1771 a proposal was made to Priestley to 

 accompany Captain Cook in his second voyage to 

 the South Seas. He accepted it, and his congre- 

 gation agreed to pay an assistant to supply his 

 place during his absence. But the appointment 

 lay in the hands of the Board of Longitude, of 

 which certain clergymen were members; and 

 whether these worthy ecclesiastics feared that 

 Priestley's presence among the ship's company 

 might expose Ilis Majesty's sloop liesolution to 

 the fate which aforetime befell a certain ship that 

 went from Joppa to Tarshish; or whether they 

 were alarmed lest a Socinian should undermine 

 that piety which, in the days of Commodore 

 Trunnion, so strikingly characterised sailors, does 

 not appear; but, at any rate, they objected to 

 Priestley " on account of his religious principles,'^ 

 and appointed the two Forsters, whose " religious 

 principles," if they had been known to these well- 

 meaning but not far-sighted persons, would 



probably have surprised them. 

 61 



