SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 375 



request, I cannot help saying that yours and his, which I 

 have now received, appear a little extraordinary. In the 

 former letter there was far from being the most distant hint 

 of any objection to me, provided I would consent to accom- 

 pany you. You now tell me that, as the different Professors 

 of Oxford and Cambridge will have the naming of the per- 

 son, and they are all clergymen, they may possibly have 

 some scruples on the head of religion ; and that, on this 

 account, you do not think you could get me nominated at 

 any rate, much less on the terms which were first mentioned 

 to me. Now what I am, and what they are, with respect 

 to religion, might easily have been known before the thing 

 was proposed to me at all. Besides, I thought that this 

 had been a business of philosophy and not of divinity. If, 

 however, this be the case, 1 shall hold the Board of Longi- 

 tude in extreme contempt, and make no scruple of speaking 

 of them accordingly, taking it for granted that you have 

 just ground for your suspicions. 



" I most sincerely wish you a happy voyage, as I doubt 

 not it will be greatly to the emolument of science ; but I 

 am surprised that the persons who have the chief influence 

 in this expedition, having (according to your representation) 

 minds so despicably illiberal, should give any countenance 

 to so noble an undertaking ; and I am truly sorry that a 

 person of your disposition should be subject to a choice 

 restricted by such narrow considerations. 



" I am, dear Sir, 

 " Your obedient, humble servant, 



"J. PRIESTLEY." 



"To GEO, ROSE, ESQ., TREASURY CHAMBERS. 



" MY DEAR SlR, " SOHO SQUARE, March 2nd, 1787. 



" By an Arret, dated April 23, 1775, M. Turgot took 

 off all kinds of droits from books imported under the most 

 general description, as t: relies ou vieux ou neitfs." I wish I 

 had his Eloge, in which the compliments paid him on the 

 occasion are pretty. I have sent to borrow it from Lord 

 Lansdowne's library, but his Lordship has not yet risen after 

 the fatigues of last night. The exemption is still continued, 

 as may be seen in the Recueil des Droits, printed last year. 



