SIR HANS SLOANE* 85 



le, after my decease, sell and dispose of the same, to 

 be settled tor the public uses aforesaid, at the rate of 

 twenty thousand pounds of lawful money of Great 

 Britain. And my will and desire is, that his Grace 

 the Duke of Richmond, the Lord Cadogan, Sir 

 Robert Walpole, Sir Paul Methuen, Mr Edgecomb, 

 or any other proper persons 1 have the honour to be 

 known to, who understand matters of this nature, 

 and may have access to his most excellent Majesty, 

 King- George the Second, and are willing to promote 

 so public a good, may be humbly desired to offer them 

 to his Majesty, at the rate above mentioned, for the 

 purposes aforesaid. But if his Majesty shall not think 

 fit to accept of the same within six months after such 

 overture made, then my will is, that they be offered, 

 at the same price, to the President, Council, and 

 Fellows of the Royal Society of London, for improv- 

 ing natural knowledge ; and upon their refusal, to the 

 Chancellor and Scholars of the University of Oxford ; 

 and upon their refusal, then successively to be offered 

 to the College of Physicians at Edinburgh, the Royal 

 Academy of Sciences at Paris, that at Petersburgh, 

 Berlin, and Madrid, who have done me the honour to 

 make me one of their members. And my will is that 

 every one of them shall have one month's time, to be 

 accounted from the time of the respective offer made 

 to them ; which offer or intention of mine may be 

 signified to all, or any of them, for the acceptance of 

 such offer, soon after my death. And in case none 

 of the persons or public bodies aforesaid shall think 

 lit to buy them at the price of twenty thousand 

 pounds, then my will is, that ny said executors do 

 sell or dispose of them, either entirely to any person 

 or body of men, or in parcels by auction, printed 

 catalogues of them being timely dispersed ; and that, in 

 selling or disposing of them, and their catalogues or 

 observations upon them, they take the advice of such 

 persons as are skilled in natural knowledge, medals, 

 &c. allowing him or them what my executors an-* 

 they think reasonable for their care and trouble i\ 

 perusing and correcting my catalogues, which have 



