1/0 A Review of some leading Points in the Official CharaCief 



By this time the reader will probably inquire vvith eagerness, 

 Through what strange train of circumstances could an indivi- 

 dual so sadly disqualihed be elevated to "the chair" of the 

 Royal Society? This train, intricate and involved as it has 

 usually been deemecl, it will not now be diffjcuit to explore. 



Sonje of the most brilliant discoveries in electricity, were, as 

 every one knows, made by the celebrated Dr. Franklin ; and, 

 at an age of the world when this country was agitated by all the 

 trying events of a war with America, Dr. Franklin had the mis- 

 fortune to be an American. Among this philosopher's numerous 

 liappy applications of bis electrical disco\eries, was that oi ele- 

 vated pointed conductors to secnre buildings froni injury by 

 lightning; an application which was warmly approved, and 

 eagerly recommended by the most eminent electricians then 

 living. In luckless hour, however, Mr. Benjatnin IVilson (the 

 father, I believe, of the present Sir Robert Wilson, and at that 

 time, oi soon after, contractor for the painting under the Ho- 

 nourable Board of Ordnance) objected to the use of pointed con- 

 ductor&, recommending instead of them conductors with knobs 

 at their superior extremities. '* It was by his obstinacy and 

 impro})er conduct (says Dr. Thomson''^) that he introduced those 

 unhappy divisions which had so unfortunate an effect upon th« 

 Royal Society, and were so disgraceful to science and philosophy." 

 Disgraceful, indeed, they were, both on account of the temper 

 with which they were conducted, and the incessant violation of 

 the principles of true philosophy which occurred in the writings 

 of Mr. Wilson and his adherents. Philosophers in other parts 

 of Europe wondered what strange fatality could have fallen upon 

 English men of science, that they could force this into a topic of 

 controversy; and neither then nor since have they uttered a 

 syllable in favour of blunt conductors f. The truth, however, is, 

 that had it not been for the intermixture of political feeling with 

 the principles of the discussion, it could not have been kept alive 

 for a single month. The American war had been the occasion 

 of scattering the seeds of political animosity far and wide; and, 

 since Franklin was a politician as well as a philosopher, it was 

 by no means difficult to insinuate that they who agreed vvith him 

 in his philosophical soeculations agreed with him, likewise, in 

 his political creed. Thus, with many, the opinions of a philo- 

 sopher as to the blunts and the points, were regarded as the 

 index of his opinions as to the American war; and the celebrated 

 dispute among the " little-" and the " big-endians" recorded 



• History of the Royal Society, p. 444. 



t See Siut— Trail.' dj Physiqat, torn. ii. pp. 442-450. 



bv 



