378 SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 



body in Europe ; but the silly faction and the paltry 

 storm it had raised, soon sank into their natural insigni- 

 ficance, and all men of sense saw plainly that nothing in 

 the complimentary language of his letter exceeded the 

 ordinary limits of such compositions, or betokened the 

 least want of respect for his own Society/"" 



His assiduous cultivation of natural history, and his 

 devotion to agricultural pursuits, did not prevent him 

 from taking the most active part in promoting the dis- 

 covery of unknown regions, the most favourite of all 

 his pursuits. He was the real founder of the African 

 Association; and it is well known that when Ledyard, 

 the most accomplished of the travellers next to Mungo 

 Park, was in want of support on his celebrated journey, it 

 was on Sir Joseph Banks that he drew a bill, which in 

 the remote region where the traveller then was, found 

 an immediate honour and discount. The captivity of 

 Flinders, whom I have heard him more than once com- 

 pare to Cook, was greatly mitigated by his exertions and 

 influence with the French Government ; and he not only 

 promoted discovery with all his means to the end of his 

 life, but applied himself vigorously to improving the 

 discoveries successively made to the real use of mankind. 

 The good treatment of the aborigines was ever a main 

 object of his humane exertions. He it was who may be 

 truly said to have planted and founded the colony of 



* If Mr. Cobbett was ever less happy on one occasion than 

 another, it was when he meddled with such subjects. He congra- 

 tulated his country in one of his papers on Captain Glennie having 

 discovered the quadrature of the circle, the captain having gained 

 his scientific fame, in Cobbett's eyes, by joining in the combination 

 against the Duke of York, a year or two before. 



