CHAPTER III 



PRESIDENTSHIP OF THE EARL OF MACCLESFIELD, 



1752-1764 



ON account of the state of his health, Martin Folkes, on 

 30th November 1752, retired from the Presidency of the 

 Royal Society, and the Earl of Macclesfield was chosen to 

 succeed him. The Earl had been elected one of the Royal 

 Philosophers on 6th February preceding, and had repeatedly 

 dined with the Club in the course of the spring and summer. 

 He attended at the first dinner after St. Andrew's Day 

 and took his place as President of the Club. As second 

 Earl of Macclesfield he was at this time a prominent 

 member of the House of Lords. He took a keen interest 

 in scientific subjects, was himself a mathematician and 

 astronomer, and had erected an observatory in which, with 

 the assistance of Bradley, he had instituted the finest in- 

 strumental equipment then in existence. He there carried 

 on a series of personal observations from 1740 up to his 

 death in 1764. He deserves to be remembered also as being 

 virtually the author of the "Bill for regulating the Com- 

 mencement of the Year," and consequently as being mainly 

 instrumental in procuring the change from the Old Style 

 to the New in 1752. 



1753. The Annual General Meeting of the Club in the year 

 1753 was held on July 26th, when sixteen members and five 

 visitors attended, the chair being filled by James Burrow. 

 The Treasurer stated that his disbursements since last 

 election day amounted to i 75., and that he had a balance 

 in hand of 4 igs. 4d. 



