SIR JOSEPH BANKS xxxi 



Banks remained in undisputed possession of the chair till 

 his death in 1820. 



The excellent qualities of the President whom this 

 victory kept in the chair were clearly exhibited by 

 the temper with which he regarded the opposition. The 

 sketch of his character (says Barrow) given by Lord 

 Brougham is true to the life : " He showed no jealousy of 

 any rival, no prejudice in anybody's favour rather than 

 another's. He was equally accessible to all for counsel 

 and help. His house, his library, his whole valuable collec- 

 tions, were at all times open to men of science, while his 

 credit both with our own and foreign Governments, and, if 

 need were, the resource of his purse, were ever ready to help 

 in the prosecution of their inquiries." 



One of the earliest official acts of the new President 

 was a proof of the estimation in which he held his late 

 fellow-voyager Cook. On the death of the latter in 1779, 

 Banks proposed to the Council that a medal should be 

 struck as a mark of the high sense entertained by the 

 Society of the importance of his extensive discoveries in 

 different parts of the globe, the cost being defrayed by 

 subscription among the Fellows. The medal, designed by 

 L. Pingo, bears a portrait of the great navigator in profile 

 on the obverse, with a representation of Britannia pointing 

 to the south pole of a globe on the reverse. 



Amongst other noteworthy services rendered by Banks 

 in his capacity as President of the Eoyal Society, the 

 following may be mentioned. In 1784 the Council obtained 

 the permission of George III. to commence a geodetical 

 survey under General Koy : this served as the basis of the 

 Ordnance Survey. In the following year he made successful 

 application to the king to guarantee the cost (amounting 

 to 4000) of Sir William Herschel's 40 -foot telescope. 

 He served on a committee of the Society appointed, at the 

 instance of the Secretary of State, to ascertain the length of 

 the pendulum vibrating seconds of time at various localities 

 in Great Britain. In 1817 the Council at his suggestion 

 recommended Government to fit out an Arctic expedition : 



