SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 377 



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 profligate 

 and cruel Queen, experienced the humanity of Sir Joseph 

 during a long captivity, although his unwearied efforts 

 to obtain his liberation failed of success. His own 

 countrymen, when detained by the arbitrary and perfi- 

 dious policy of Napoleon, were in repeated instances 

 indebted to Sir Joseph Banks for their permission to 

 return home ; and a learned friend of mine, one of the 

 first Oriental scholars of the age, the late Professor 

 Hamilton, must have perished at Verdun but for his 

 generous interference. By his interposition the Institute 

 exerted itself in various other cases; and whenever 

 it could be made to appear that a man of science 

 or of letters was among the detained, no very strict scru- 

 tiny being exercised either by Sir Joseph or his Paris 

 colleagues, the order for his liberation was applied for 

 and obtained. 



In 1802 he was chosen one of the Foreign Members 

 of that illustrious body, and in acknowledging this high 

 honour he expressed his gratitude in warm terms. Much 

 offence was given to the zealots of the Anti-Gallican 

 party in this country ; the remains of Bishop Horsley's 

 party were roused to censure him; an anonymous attack 

 upon him was published in the daily papers, and after- 

 wards acknowledged to have proceeded from the Bishop ; 

 Mr. Cobbett, then as bitter an enemy of France and of 

 peace as he soon afterwards became a zealous friend, 

 addressed a letter to the Members of the Royal Society, 

 calling upon them to depose the President from the 

 chair, because he had called the Institute the first literary 



