and Proceedings of ihe late President of the Royal Society. 2A3 



members of the Royal Society, nearly forty years ago, were the 

 causes of the dissensions by which it was tlien agitated. In 

 the course of these disputes Sir Joseph and his friends formed 

 the plan of removing Dr. Huttox, then Professor of Matlierna- 

 tics in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, frooi the office 

 of Foreign Secretary, which he had discharged with great honour 

 to himself, and perfectly to the satisfaction of a majority of the 

 members. 



Here, again, that I may not, however involuntarily, slide into 

 any discoloration of circumstances, 1 shall quote a pamphlet 

 published exprcsslv on the subject, and entitled " An Appeal to 

 the Fellows of the Roval Societv, concerning the Measures taken 

 bv Sir Joseph Banks, their President, to compel Dr. Hutton to 

 resign, &:c." 



" Dr. Hutton is known to be one of the best mathematicians 

 in England : and he is likewise a very good writer upon the ma- 

 thematics, which is far from being the case with every pf^rson who 

 understands them, or is well read in them. He is also remarkably 

 industrious, and has furnished the Philosophical Transactions 

 with more papers (and those full of ingenuity as well as learning) 

 upon mathematical subjects, than, I believe, any other member 

 of the Society. He is also Professor of Mathematics at the Royal 

 Military Academy at Woolwich, where he some years ago tried 

 a variety of most curious and useful experiments upon the force 

 of fired gunpowder, and the initial velocity of cannon-balls, si- 

 milar to those which had formerly been tried upon the like sub- 

 jects with respect to musket-balls, by the late very eminent ma- 

 thematiciau and engineer Mr. Benjamin Robins. And he after- 

 wards drew up an account of these experiments upon cannon- 

 balls, which was presented to the Royal Society and printed in 

 the Philosophical Transactions; the Society rewarding its learned 

 author by giving him Sir Godfrey Copley's medal." 



It was on account of Dr. Hutton's eminent abilities and his 

 extraordinary activity* in devoting them not to purposes of mere 

 theory, l)Ut to momentous practical objects connected with philo- 

 sophy, that the Royal Society elected him Foreign Secretary in 

 Jaimary )77'J; it being regarded as an office of honour and not 

 of emolument. lie had the misrortune, however, to be honoured 

 with the friendship of Sir John Pringle, to appreciate too highly 



• Such is the ignorance of the writer in the Neto Times, that he speaks 

 of Simpson, Hutton, &:c. as mere elementary writers for school-boys. Were 

 he acquainted with the writinjjs of practical French mathematicians (as 

 Montuvln, Dnpin, llachette, &c.) he would find them describinn; these very 

 men, and their successors at Woolwich, as the persons who have mainly 

 contributed to prevent the extinction of mathematical science in England. 



H h 2 th« 



