MEMOIR OF BARON HALLER. 41 



Hanover, and also made him a Privy Counsellor : 

 he also requested for him from the Emperor, letters 

 of nobility, which were transmitted in the most 

 flattering manner in 1749 ; hut notwithstanding, 

 Haller would never assume the title of Baron, 

 though frequently and properly applied to him. 

 Many of the most celebrated universities made the 

 attempt of enticing him to become their associate, 

 hut in vain. The celebrated Dillenius was anxious 

 to procure him as his successor in the botanical 

 chair afc Oxford. The year after, he was urgently 

 solicited to esl&hlish himself at Utrecht as chancellor 

 of i'j8 WHWSSMy ; and shortly afterwards, the king 

 of Prussia, well known as the patron of letters and 

 the friend of learned men, offered him, on the most 

 liberal conditions, the presidency of the academy at 

 Berlin. Marshal Keith wrote to him in the name 

 of his sovereign, offering him the chancellorship of 

 the university of Halle, and Count Orloff invited 

 him to Russia, in the name of his mistress the 

 empress, offering him a distinguished place at 

 St. Petersburgh ; but to all these solicitations he 

 returned a negative reply. 



There was only one country which Haller preferred 

 to Hanover, and that was his native land. To it 

 he returned in 1 753, on perceiving that his strength 

 was no longer equal to the discharge of the numerous 

 avocations in which he was engaged. Besides, he 

 had now great scientific projects in view, and the 

 engagements connected with the three chairs he 

 filled at Gottingen very much interfered with the 



