THE ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY 219 



alleged, perpetual motion might be discovered, the 

 secretary was directed to lay it before the Royal Irish 

 Academy, with a request for its opinion. The 

 Academy did not think the principle new, nor did 

 it look on the machine as being likely to be useful 

 in mechanics. 



Mr. Richard Vincent, secretary, died in 1788, and 

 Captain Thomas Burgh was elected in his room. In 

 June 1792, Burgh was elected a vice-president in the 

 room of John Wallis, resigned. 



Within eight years prior to this date, Abbe 

 Raynal (1), Brussels, John Howard, Abbe Commerell, 

 and the Rev. Dr. Daniel Augustus Beaufort (2) had 

 been elected honorary members. 



1. Guillaume Francois Raynal, born in 17 13, was for 

 some time a Jesuit, but, having been excluded from the 

 Order, he devoted himself to literature and society. His 

 Philosophical and Political History of European Settlements in 

 the Two Indies, published in Amsterdam in 1770, was 

 written in collaboration with several others, and the work 

 was translated into some European languages. It was full 

 of " philosophic declamation " (as Voltaire said), which, per- 

 haps, accounted for its popularity with a certain section of 

 the public. Horace Walpole declared that it " told one 

 everything in the world." Hatred and contempt for re- 

 ligion, and passion for justice and freedom, were the key- 

 notes of this remarkable book, which many ascribed to 

 Diderot. It was ordered to be publicly burned, and the 

 author arrested ; but he escaped, and was subsequently 

 allowed to return to Paris. Raynal died in 1796. See 

 Diderot and the Encyclopedists (John Morley, ii. 222). 

 Among the Haliday Pamphlets (1782, ccccxxxiii. 3) is a 

 Letter to Abbe Raynal, Author of the Work on the Revolution 

 in North America, by Thomas Paine. 



2. Daniel A. Beaufort, son of a French refugee minister, 

 was born at East Barnet in 1739. He held the rectory of 



