42 MEMOIR OF 



observation, had not his old antagonist, Bishop 

 Horsley, seized on it with avidity, and commented 

 on it with much bitterness in a letter addressed to 

 its author, which he printed, and privately circu- 

 lated, under the signature of Misogallus. The 

 King, (George III.) who sometimes suffered 

 his political feelings to govern his conduct, even 

 in the decision of a scientific question, and who 

 had taken offence at Sir John Pringle (Sir Joseph's 

 predecessor in the chair of the Royal Society) for 

 countenancing Franklin's lightning conductors, 

 was deeply offended at these expressions of 

 " esteem " for a republican institution. His 

 Majesty's anger had, no doubt, been excited by 

 the remark of Horsley, that the letter " was 

 replete with sentiments which were a compound 

 of servility, disloyalty, and falsehood ; sentiments 

 which ought never to be conceived by an English 

 heart, never written by an English hand, and 

 least of all, by yours, distinguished as you are by 

 repeated (out of respect to his Majesty I will not 

 say unmerited) marks of royal favour." The ire 

 of the Royal Society was provoked by the follow- 

 ing passage of Horsley's letter : — "It was 

 reserved for the head of the Royal Society of 

 London to assure an exotic embryo academy, 

 that he is more proud of being a mere associate 

 of the latter than president of the former ; that 

 he considers their election of him as * the 



