1769 Due de La Rochefoucauld 105 



and heiress of Admiral Sir Charles Saunders, with whom 

 he acquired a large fortune, and he then took the name of 

 Saunders in addition to his own. He became F.R.S. in 

 1768. Mr. Godschall was elected into the Royal Society 

 in 1758. 



The number of the company for which commons were 

 provided continued to be twelve. This year, however, at 

 more than half of the dinners this number was not reached. 

 On two occasions in August and one in December only three 

 diners made their appearance. The Treasurer would need 

 all the supply which had been voted to him, for not only 

 had he to disburse for the deficient attendance, but there 

 would come all the game-keeper's fees, charges for carriage 

 and cooks' perquisites connected with the venison that the 

 Earl of Shaftesbury, Lord Cadogan or the Earl of Hardwicke 

 might present. With a touch of humour he records on 

 26th October another unexpected demand on his Fund : 

 " Ordered that the Treasurer do pay for a bad shilling 

 taken in the last Reckoning." 



The foreign visitors this year included two interesting 

 personages from France who dined with the Club on 2nd 

 March. Louis Alexandre Due de La Rochefoucauld 

 D'Enville, representing one of the oldest and most dis- 

 tinguished families of his country, at first followed the 

 profession of arms, but he eventually devoted himself to 

 liberal and enlightened scientific studies, assisting with his 

 ample fortune the prosecution of science. In 1782 he was 

 elected into the Academy of Sciences. At the time of his 

 visit to England he was only six-and-twenty. During the 

 troublous years which preceded the French Revolution 

 he took an active and liberal part in public affairs, 

 being one of the first nobles to join the Tiers-fitat. He 

 was treacherously stoned to death in 1792 before the eyes 

 of his mother and his wife. Benjamin Franklin and he were 

 friends, and doubtless they had many intercommunications 

 when the Duke was translating into French the " Constitu- 

 tions of the thirteen United States of America " (1783). 



The Duke's kinsman who was with him as a visitor to 



