SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 387 



SIR J. BANKS TO LORD GRENVILLE. 



" MY LORD, " Soho Square, July 20th, 1796. 



" When I had the honour near three weeks ago of 

 waiting upon your Lordship, by your appointment, on the 

 business of M. de Billardiere, I was in hopes I had con- 

 vinced your Lordship that the measure of returning to that 

 gentleman the collections of natural history he had made 

 during his employment as a naturalist on the voyage of dis- 

 covery sent from France for the purpose of inquiring into the 

 fate of the late M. de Peyrouse, was a measure likely to do 

 honour to the national character of the English, as a people 

 loving science and abounding with generosity, as well as 

 with justice, and liable to no reasonable objection whatever. 



" I was in hopes also that your Lordship would consider 

 it as creditable to His Majesty's Ministers to grant in this 

 instance a truce to the unfortunate animosities at present 

 subsisting between England and France, by following the 

 precedents of their predecessors in the case of M. de Con- 

 damine, of the French nation under their late form of govern- 

 ment in that of Captain Cook, and under their present one 

 in the mistaken instance of M. Spillard. 



" I hope I have not been mistaken, though your Lordship 

 will allow that I have reason to fear the contrary, because 

 you promised me a speedy answer, and I have not heard from 

 your Lordship since. Respecting the opinion of M. de 

 Billardiere having received any special commission or enjoyed 

 any salary from the late King of France, I have made every 

 inquiry in my power without learning anything to make me 

 believe that to have been the case : the late King did cer- 

 tainly draw up private instructions for M. de Peyrouse, and 

 this has probably been the origin of the mistake. 



" Allow me then, my Lord, to request a speedy answer to 

 this interesting subject, and to deprecate a refusal. M. de 

 Billardiere is, as I am informed by printed documents, at this 

 time Director of the Botanic Garden at Paris, at the head of 

 his department of science, and in a country where, however 

 humanity may have been outraged by popular leaders, science 

 is held in immeasurable esteem, he will have it in his power 



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