1804.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 263 



have in my literary character received from them or those 

 which literary people, my friends, have received from them 

 on my account. I honour and respect them both as a 

 body and as individuals more than ever, and look forward 

 with earnest wishes for the time when I may again com- 

 municate with them freely, as I once had the happiness of 

 doing. I have received their medallic diplomas for Mr. 

 Cavendish, Dr. Maskelyne, Dr. Herschel, and myself, and 

 will distribute them without delay. Pray remind them, 

 however, that Mr. James Forbes, F.R.S., is still a prisoner 

 among them ; though an old man, possibly he does not 

 wish to return home, as his daughter has married into a 

 French family. Possibly other insurmountable obstacles 

 have prevented his release, as the Institute have so nobly 

 and handsomely proved their wish that the Fellows of the 

 Royal Society should be restored to their pursuits of 

 science. 



From the tone of your letter it appears to me that you 

 are likely to take root in the soil in which you now grow. 

 I am sorry that you did not return to England, as you gave 

 me every reason to expect you would, last year. Your house 

 at Brompton is an inadequate pledge of your future resi- 

 dence here, as experience has confirmed me in believing. 



In the meantime the Institution has irrevocably fallen 

 into the hands of the enemy, and is now perverted to a 

 hundred uses for which you and I never intended it. I could 

 have successfully resisted their innovations had you been here, 

 but, alone, unsupported, and this year confined to my house 

 for three months by disease (gout), my spirit was too much 

 broken to admit of my engaging singly with the host of 

 H.'s and B.'s 1 who had possession of the fortress. Adieu, 

 then, Institution ! I have long ago declared my intention of 

 attending no more. 



You desire that Davy may have your papers for insertion 

 in the Journals. Alas ! the Journals have ceased for more 



1 Hippesleys and Bernards. 



