I JOSEPH PRIESTLEY 7 



observations which his industry and ingenuity 

 had accumulated, in the course of four years, to 

 the Royal Society, under the title of " Observa- 

 tions on Different Kinds of Air" a memoir 

 which was justly regarded of so much merit and 

 importance, that the Society at once conferred 

 upon the author the highest distinction in their 

 power, by awarding him the Copley Medal. 



In 1771 a proposal was made to Priestley to 

 accompany Captain Cook in his second voyage to 

 the South Seas. He accepted it, and his congre- 

 gation agreed to pay an assistant to supply his 

 place during his absence. But the appointment 

 lay in the hands of the Board of Longitude, of 

 which certain clergymen were members ; and 

 whether these worthy ecclesiastics feared that 

 Priestley's presence among the ship's company 

 might expose His Majesty's sloop Resolution to 

 the fate which aforetime befell a certain ship that 

 went from Joppa to Tarshish ; or whether they 

 were alarmed lest a Socinian should undermine 

 that piety which, in .the days of Commodore 

 Trunnion, so strikingly characterised sailors, does 

 not appear; but, at any rate, they objected to 

 Priestley " on account of his religious principles/' 

 and appointed the two Forsters, whose " religious 

 principles," if they had been known to these well- 

 meaning but not far-sighted persons, would 

 probably have surprised them. 



In 1772 another proposal was made to Priestley. 



61 



