42] 
Government five years since, is fresh in your me- 
mory; and our publications are a better testimony 
of our deserts than any that I could lay before you. 
I trust we shall go on with equal zeal and increas- 
ing honour and success. 
“In whatever way I can be most useful to you, 
Iam at your disposal, as are the treasures of our 
great leader and instructor, which I hold only for 
the use of my fellow-labourers in science. 
“I regret my personal absence from you for 
many reasons, but it is unavoidable; and I am an- 
nually reminded that a permanent residence in town 
would still less agree with my constitution than it 
did formerly. Nevertheless I enjoy by that means 
more leisure for my favourite pursuits, to which my 
whole time is devoted; and my mind is always with 
you. Allow me to conclude with my most ardent 
wishes for the prosperity of the Linnean Society, 
and that we may all long witness and promote it.” 
At a period when the illustrious individual, in 
whose honour the Linnean Society was founded, is 
assailed on all sides, it will be interesting to know, 
that, unmoved by the almost general defection, he, 
who may be considered as his principal representa- 
tive, still continued to advocate the principles of the 
immortal Swedish naturalist ; and this unaltered ad- 
herence Sir James expressed in his last introductory 
lecture at the London Institution in 1825, as well as 
in the concluding pages of his latest printed work, the 
English Flora, where the author alludes to “prin- 
ciples too little studied by the pursuers of super- 
