REPCRT OF THE SECRETARY. 5 



a hat, and then walked with me round Christ Church meadows. What 

 is very curious his father's name is omitted and he is merely stated to 

 be the son of an esquire." 



" For some account of Mr. James Smithson Macie see Gentleman's 

 Magazine for March, 1830, p. 275." 



" Extract translated from the college register : " 1786, May 7, James 

 Louis (or Lewis) Macie, jet, 17, of London, son of an esquire, matricu- 

 lated of Pembroke College, Oxford." 



"Under June 11th, 1789 : " Macie introduced me to Sir Joseph Banks 

 at the Eoyal Society." 



Letter from James Smithson to Davies Gilbert. 



" Parts, May dth, Year 4 [1792]. 

 " Dear Sir : Your letter did not reach London till after I was come 

 out of town, and followed me here. I really take it exceedingly ill of 

 you to have forgot my crystals, and beg of you to make quick and 

 ample atonement for it. I do not now remember what particular ones 

 I requested you to procure me, but any you bring shall, king-like, be 

 graciously received, as a testimony of your good intentions. Well ! 

 Things are going on ! ^a ira is growing the song of England, of Eu- 

 rope, as well as of France. Men of every rank are joining in the 

 chorus. Stupidity and guilt have had a long reign, and it begins, in- 

 deed, to be time for justice and common sense to have their turn. The 

 office which you have been lately named to will, I hope, afford you 

 means of promoting their cause. Every Englishman I converse with, 

 almost every Englishman I see or hear of, appears to be of the demo- 

 cratic party. Mr. Davis, high sheriff' for Dorsetshire, left this town to- 

 day and takes with him, it seems, a quantity of tricolor ribbon to deck 

 his men with the French national cockades, and I do not think this ex- 

 ample unworthy of imitation by those whose principles lead them to 

 consider with indifference and contempt the frowns of the court party, 

 to whom, doubtless, the mixture of red, white, and blue is an object of 

 horror. I do not tell you news of this country, as the English papers 

 inform you pretty faithfully of the manner in which it goes on. You 

 have understood, I hope, that the church is now here quite unacknowl- 

 edged by the state, and is indeed allowed to exist only till they have 

 leisure to give it the final death-stroke. Mr. Louis Bourbon is still at 

 Paris, and the office of king is not yet abolished, but they daily feel the 

 inutility, or rather great inconvenience, of continuing it, and its dura- 

 tion will probably not be long. May other nations, at the time of their 

 reforms, be wise enough to cast off, at first, the contemptible incum- 

 brai)ce. I consider a nation with a king as a man who takes a lion as 



