148 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE 



From an early date tlio Society scorns to have labored uiuler two especial 

 e.a"^^('^^ of eiul)arrassmcnt : want of pecuniary mean?, arising cliiefiy from tlie 

 failure of members to pay the stipulated contribution, and a constant tendency 

 to extend the honor of membership to persons whose pretensions were of doubt- 

 ful validity. We learn with some surprise that, while a few were occasionally 

 exempted from the payment of the small weekly contribution, (among whom 

 ut one lime was Sir Isaac Newton,) there were many others of ample means 

 who suffered their liabilities to accumulate until the Society, to Avhich no 

 doubt they prided themselves in belonging, was reduced almost to the point 

 of inaction. Nor does it increase our respect for this class of delinquents to 

 find that when, in 1728, the Attorney General had given his opinion that the 

 Society was authorized to sue for such arrears, and steps were taken for that 

 purpose, the liabilities were generally discharged and the Society placed in 

 com})arative ease.* The extent of the second inconvenience may be appreciated 

 from a saying ascribed to D'Alembert, who, in allusion to the extreme prodi- 

 gality with which the honors of the Fellowship were distributed, used "jocularly 

 to ask any person going to England if he desired to be made a member of the 

 Society, as he couhl easily obtain it for him, should he think it any honor." 

 The necessity, thenifore, for some additional restriction being sensibly felt, the 

 Society sought legal advice as to their powers in that regard, and were advised 

 that, while their charter did not appear to authorize them to limit the Fellows to a 

 certain number, it clearly empowered them to describe and ascertain the quali- 

 fications of persons to be elected. A statute was thereupon enacted, Avhich has 

 since been steadily observed, by \yhich it is required that all candidates, except 

 peers and some other privileged persons, shall be proposed at a meeting of the 

 Society by three or more members, and that a paper signed by them and set- 

 ting forth specifically the qualifications of the candidate, " shall be fixed up in 

 the meeting-room at ten several ordinary meetings before the said candidate 

 shall be put to the ballot." It appears that candidates were also expected to 

 send in a paper on the branch of science with which they were most conver- 

 sant. 



Another but more occasional source of disquietude has been a jealousy 

 sometimes manifested of undue influence or irregular procedures on the \)iirt of 

 the presiding officer. This exhibited itself to some extent even towards New- 

 ton in the course of the preliminary steps for the removal of the Society's 

 quarters to Crane court; but it broke out with excessive violence against Sir 

 Joseph Hanks, in 1784, upon the alleged charge of improper interference with 

 elections, and particularly of having favored the pretensions of naturalists in 

 preference to tliose of mathematicians. Groundless as this charge is shown to 

 have been,t and factious and OA-erbearing as was the conduct of Dr. Ilorseley, 

 who, with very slender scientific pretensions, affecttd the leadership of the 

 mathematical party, this schism not only disturbed the harmony of the Society, 

 but seemed ibr a time to threaten its stability. 



The influential part borne by the Society in the introduction of the reformed 

 caleiular into England may render an allusion to it in this place not UTelevant. 

 By this change, which took place on the 2d September, 1752, "eleven nominal 

 dayswere struck out, so that the last day of old style being the 2d, the first 

 of new style (the next day) was called the 14th instead of the 3d. The same 



* Bt'foro tlip inc()rj)oration, ten shillings were required of members on the admission and a 

 weekly iiuj'iiu'Ut of one sliilling-. \]y the statutes of J()63 the initiatory fee is advanced to 

 forty shillings, tlio weekly payments remaining as before. In 1847 the former charge had 

 become ten i)ounds, and the weekly contribution been converted into an annual one of four 

 pounds, to be paid in advance. Lib<'rty is given to coQipound for tliewbole by the payment, 

 in 8om(3 cases, of forty, in others of sixty pounds. 



t See Lord Brougham's Lives of Philosophers, p. 363. 



