SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 43 



highest and most enviable literary distinction 

 which he could possibly attain,' and that he deems 

 them the 'first literary society in the world/ 

 Sir, I have read with pleasure and with profit 

 many volumes published by the Royal Society, 

 and with due submission to you, I assert that the 

 cultivation of science is more indebted to their 

 exertions, than to those of any other institution 

 whatsoever; but I am yet to learn the merits of this 

 novel association of revolutionary philosophers 

 into which you have been enlisted. What acts, 

 but acts of robbery, have we seen of them ? Where 

 are the proofs of their pre-eminence ? It is 

 incumbent on you to produce those proofs, and 

 to convince the British literati that your con- 

 tempt of them is just." 



Whatever difference of opinion there may exist 

 as to the terms in which the honour was acknow- 

 ledged, Sir Joseph had deserved the compliment, 

 by the liberality of his exertions in procuring the 

 restitution of scientific collections addressed to the 

 Jardin du Roi at Paris, which had been captured 

 by our ships during the war with France. It is 

 said that his intercession was no less than ten times 

 successfully exerted in this manner. " He thought 

 that national hostility should find no entrance 

 among followers of science.* These are traits in 

 his character highly deserving of remembrance, 

 and an eminent member of the Institute, in his 



