SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 369 



pretty confident that he never would have undertaken 

 any such mission ; but I am perfectly certain that the 

 King never would have suffered Sir Joseph to approach 

 him on any subject of the kind. This opinion I can 

 state the more emphatically, since my worthy friend 

 Sir E. Knatchbull, who did me the favour of examin- 

 ing this Life, gives me the most positive assurance of 

 his uncle never having at all interfered, as the story 

 asserts he did. An interference of a very different 

 description he did exert, and with the happiest results. 

 During the long war, which desolated the world by 

 land and by sea, after the year 1792, he constantly 

 exerted himself to mitigate its evils, and alleviate its 

 pressure upon men of science and upon the interests 

 of philosophy. It was owing to him that our Govern- 

 ment issued orders in favour of La Perouse, whereso- 

 ever our fleets should come in contact with that un- 

 fortunate navigator. When D'Entrecasteaux was sent 

 in search of him, and Billardiere's collections were 

 captured and brought to England, Sir Joseph Banks 

 had them restored to him, and without even opening 

 to examine them, as if he feared that any one should 

 profit by any discoveries save their rightful owner, the 

 author. On ten several occasions did he procure the 

 restoration to the Jardin des Plantes of collections 

 addressed to that noble establishment, and which had 

 fallen a prey to our naval superiority. He sent to the 

 Cape of Good Hope, to recover some charts belonging 

 to Humboldt, which our cruizers had seized, and in no 

 instance would he suffer the expenses he had under- 

 gone to be repaid. He even interfered to remedy in- 

 juries which foreign nations had inflicted on scientific 

 men. Broussonet had fled from France to save his 

 life from the anarchists of Paris. Sir Joseph Banks 

 directed his correspondents in Spain and in Portugal 

 to supply his wants ; and he found a friendly purse 

 open to him both at Madrid and at Lisbon. Dolomieu, 

 cast into a dungeon in Sicily by the tyranny of the 

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