214 Presidentship of Sir Joseph Banks 1802 



Charles Hatchett wrote papers on chemical and miner- 

 alogical subjects, some of which found a place in the 

 Philosophical Transactions. He was elected into the Royal 

 Society in 1797. He would appear to have been possessed 

 of great personal charm. Sir John Barrow, who knew him 

 well in the Club, records that if a novelist were required 

 to draw " the portrait of a person who, from the age of boy- 

 hood to that of an octogenarian, maintained under all 

 circumstances the same uniform character of fun and frolic, 

 good humour, good sense, kindness and benevolence, Charles 

 Hatchett might be offered for the original." This lively and 

 kindly being would seem to have thawed the icy reserve of 

 Henry Cavendish who was so keenly interested in his election. 



The second Earl Spencer had been made F.R.S. in 1780 

 when he was Viscount Althorp. He sat in the House of 

 Commons from 1780 to 1783 when, on succeeding to his 

 father's title, he entered the House of Lords. Appointed 

 First Lord of the Admiralty in 1794, he held that responsible 

 office for more than six years the most famous time in 

 the history of the British navy. He was Home Secretary 

 in 1806-7 an d thereafter devoted himself to county business 

 and to literary and scientific studies. His wife was one 

 of the most famous hostesses of her day. 



Owing to the long continuance of the war with France 

 there were for some years few continental visitors to the 

 Royal Society or its Club. This year, indeed, witnessed the 

 conclusion of peace and the signing of the Treaty of Amiens 

 on March 27th. The political horizon, however, seemed still 

 too cloudy to permit the current of foreign visitors to begin 

 to flow once more towards London. A few official French- 

 men crossed the Channel and were straightway captured 

 by Sir Joseph Banks for the Club. He invited for the I2th 

 August three eminent men who occupied important official 

 positions in their own country. Two of them Antoine 

 Augustin Parmentier and Jean Baptiste Huzard, members 

 of the lately organised Institute of France, were noted 

 agriculturists who had rendered important service to their 

 fatherland in the troublous times through which France 



