208 THE LIFE OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS 



Amiens, with the result that many unfortunate civilians 

 were detained in France, it was quite a big department 

 of Sir Joseph's affairs to correspond with persons begging 

 his intervention. 



The time came when the Ministry of the day felt it 

 inconvenient to meet these demands on the part of Sir 

 Joseph. Lord and Lady Shaft esbury were long detained 

 in France against their will. They wrote to Earl Radnor 

 complaining that all other methods of obtaining their re- 

 lease had failed, and begged him to procure a letter from 

 Sir Joseph Banks to the French Institut requesting their 

 intercession. At this point Banks had become discouraged 

 by learning that Lord Howick seemed to dislike his 

 continued interference. A memorandum, in Banks 's 

 handwriting, dated October 4, 1806, runs thus : " Was I 

 countenanced as I think I ought to have been in extending 

 as much as possible the influence I have over the literary 

 men in that country, I think I could have done much. 

 But in that case I must have been allowed some influence 

 in this country, enough to have enabled me to solicit 

 with effect such favours for Frenchmen confined here. 

 This however is now withdrawn by Lord Howick's means, 

 and I am deprived of its power." A year and a half later 

 he mentions that his correspondence with France was 

 stopped by the late Administration, and that the present 

 one refused to allow him to resume it : "I have released 

 ten prisoners, all of whom would but for me have been still 

 in France. The facilities I met with were so much on the 

 increase when Lord Grey [then Howick] stopped me, 

 that I could have done a good deal more before this 

 time/' 



The spoils of war, in the shape of " curiosities " of any 

 sort, sometimes found a home in this country without 

 being reclaimed. This was the case with Joseph Martin's 

 collection, from Cayenne, captured by a Hastings pri- 

 vateer. Seven thousand birds, animals, and plants, 



