50 HERSCHEL AND HIS WORK 



of the blunts. When Franklin was informed of 

 the King's action, he wrote from France : " The 

 King's changing his pointed conductors for blunt 

 ones is a matter of small importance to me. . . . For 

 it is only since he thought himself and family safe 

 from the thunder of Heaven that he dared to use 

 his own thunder in destroying his own subjects." 

 But George in. went further. He even endeavoured 

 to make the Royal Society rescind their decision in 

 favour of points. Sir John Pringle, the President, 

 a man who had been Professor of Moral Philosophy 

 in Edinburgh, who was physician-extraordinary to 

 the King and Queen, vir illustris de omnibus bonis 

 artibus bene meritus, when urged to use his influence 

 against points and for blunts, manfully replied, " Sire, 

 I cannot reverse the laws and operations of nature." 

 A late l addition to the story is that the King replied, 

 " Perhaps, Sir John, you had better resign." That 

 he did resign and withdraw to Edinburgh a year 

 afterward, is certain : whether points and blunts 

 had any influence in causing him to take that step is 

 uncertain, but it can scarcely be doubted that the 

 King's interference in a scientific quarrel had some- 

 thing to do with the censure passed on his generosity 

 by Dr. Watson, the son, four years afterwards. 2 



1 In 1820. 



2 Sir John, after his return from Edinburgh to London in 1781, had 

 the pleasure of spending a couple of hours on week-nights at a society 

 of which he had been for many years a member, and where he met 

 "with such friends as Mr. Cavendish, Dr. Heberden, and Dr. Watson." 

 It was at one of these meetings that Sir John, on the 14th of January 

 1782, was seized with a fit from which he never recovered. In August 

 of that year, with his friend's death still fresh in his thoughts, Dr. 

 Watson gave expression to his sentiments regarding the King's 

 shabbiness (Annual Register, 1783 [45]). 



