EUROPEAN FAME 211 



A Nation which during the most frightful convulsions 

 of the late most terrible revolution never ceased to 

 possess my esteem ; being always persuaded, even during 

 the most disastrous periods, that it contained many 

 good citizens who would infallibly get the upper hand, 

 and who would re-establish in the heart of their country- 

 men the empire of virtue, of justice, and of honour. 



" Receive more especially, citizens, my warmest 

 acknowledgements for the truly polite manner in which 

 you communicated this agreeable intelligence." 



This incident caused an unexpected uproar, as soon as 

 Banks's letter appeared in the London newspapers. 

 He and his friends were amazed to find that the occasion 

 was to be seized for disturbing his hold upon the 

 Chair of the Royal Society. According to Brougham, 

 Bishop Horsley took part in the attack. The most 

 widely-read effusion on the topic was probably that 

 inserted in Cobbett's Political Register* The tomahawk 

 lately imported from America was already popular, 

 and the Register, as its medium, was in its vigorous youth. 

 Whenever there was a grievance, real or imaginary, 

 Cobbett's energies were certain to be seconded by some 

 one as daring and little scrupulous as himself. A Gallo- 

 phobe correspondent (signing himself Misogallus) seized 

 the opportunity for a fierce attack on Sir Joseph, re- 

 producing his letter in full, with a torrent of abusive 

 sentences in condemnation alike of its purport and of its 

 manner : " Load of filthy adulation " ; "So little honour- 

 able to your character and so insulting to the Society 

 over which you have long presided, that an explanation 

 or disavowal is demanded by the public voice " ; " Senti- 

 ments a compound of servility, disloyalty, and falsehood." 

 And the date, January 21, anniversary of the murder of 

 Louis XVI, was unfortunate ; it must have been designed 



* Vol. I (1802). 



