1815.] Proicedings of Philosophical Societies. 22f 



Bonaparte, or the maxims of his government : otherwise, he would 

 not have expected any redress on account of the justice of his 

 cause, or any shame in his adversaries, on account of the cruelty, 

 injustice, or meanness of their conduct. The Cumberland was 

 seized, Captain FHnders and Mr. Aken commhted close prisoners 

 in a tavern, and tiie crew confined in the common prison. He was 

 afterwards sent to the Garden prison, a large house about a mile 

 out of town, attached to which vvas apiece of ground for walking. 

 Here he remained 20 montiis. fie was then permitted on his 

 parole to reside in VVilhem's plain, in ihe highest part of the island, 

 with a range of two leagues all round. All the exertions that were 

 raade by the Governor General of India, Lord Bentinck, the naval 

 commanders, the men of science in the Mauritius, the President 

 of the Royal Society, were in vain. Even an order from Bona- 

 parte did not produce the desired effect : De Caen probably as- 

 signing as a reason that Captain Flinders was too v^ell acquainted 

 with the island to be permitted to depart. At last, in ISIO, whea 

 an immediate attack upon the island was expected, De Caen sud- 

 denly allowed Captain Flindei-s to depart, without any new order 

 from France ; and even to go to the place from %vhich the attack 

 was expected. Captain Flinders conceives that De Caen wished to 

 get back to France, to share in the glory of his former companions 

 in arms ; and that he set him at liberty, because he thought he 

 might contribute materially to the capture of the island. 



Article XII. 



Proceedings of Philosophical Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



On Thursday tiie 2Gth of January, a paper by Mr. Hooke was 

 read. On the Construction of Naval Charts. Ships are navigated 

 within sight of land by means of naval charts; in the open sea by 

 means of charts of a particular construction, and by observations 

 of the heavenly bodies. The paper was confined to the first of 

 these. Naval charts at present cannot be used upon deck, without 

 the risk of being destroyed. Mr. Hooke proposes to engrave them 

 on stiff paper, and to varnish then) well. He shows how the dif- 

 ferent problems requisite during a navigation along a coast may be 

 solved; but these solutions could not be sulhciently understood 

 from hearing the paper read, to give any account of them here. 



On Thursday the 2d of February, part of a i)apcr by Dr. Wat- 

 son Philips was read, Ou the Cause of the Motioft of the Heart of 

 Animals. Various opinions on this subject have been entertained 

 by physiologists. Of late, M. Ciallois has endeavoured to shovv 

 that x\m motion dtj^cnds entirely upon the spinal njarrow, and im- 



P 2 



