406 



perfluous ; for I am sure that you cannot imagine 

 how it should be otherwise than that I should to 

 my heart lament such a loss. The lovers of science 

 will join in lamenting it throughout the civilized 

 world, and our Society must feel it to be irreparable. 

 They have lost their corporate parent, as well as 

 one of their greatest ornaments. My friendship 

 with the late excellent Sir James Smith was of al- 

 most forty years' standing, — it was cordial, it was 

 constant. I shall never cease to reflect on it with 

 peculiar pride and satisfaction." 



The nobleman who has succeeded to the presi- 

 dent's chair in the Linnsean Society, expresses a re- 

 gard which could only be the consequence of the 

 same friendly feelings and high esteem which Sir 

 James entertained for his lordship. 



" I cannot," writes Lord Stanley, " allow a single 

 moment to pass without expressing my sincere 

 thanks for the very flattering attention shown me 

 in communicating the loss we have sustained by 

 the removal of our valued friend Sir James Smith, 

 — an attention the more flattering as I cannot 

 hut consider it a sort of testamentary addition to 

 the many acts of kindness I have received from him 

 in life, and as a proof that his surviving connexions 

 do me the justice to consider me as one of those 

 friends who truly regarded, and now as sincerely 

 regret him. 



i( His loss, indeed, in the friendly and social circles 

 in which he so much delighted, must be long and 

 deservedly felt ; nor will the place he filled in the 

 estimation of the public and literary world, with so 



