22O Presidentship of Sir Joseph Banks 1805 



of the Club at that time was probably the Bishop of St. 

 Asaph. Under that ecclesiastical title this guest was none 

 other than their old associate Dr. Samuel Horsley. It will 

 be remembered that in the years 1783-84 he was one of 

 the leaders in opposition to the President and Council of 

 the Royal Society, and that by the votes of the general body 

 of the Fellows he was decisively worsted ; that he thereupon 

 resigned his connection with the Society, and by absenting 

 himself from the meetings of the Club lost his place there and 

 was formally removed from the list of members. Twenty 

 years had slipped away since that schism, and Dr. Horsley had 

 never once been again at the meetings of the Club. These 

 were years of great activity on his part, however, though not 

 in the scientific procedure of the Royal Society. He threw 

 himself with all his vigour into the ecclesiastical field, occupy- 

 ing successively the bishoprics of St. David's, Rochester, 

 and now of St. Asaph. Besides the duties of his see, he 

 took part in the debates in the House of Lords, plunged 

 into public controversy, such as that with Priestley, and 

 yet found time to edit and publish a collected edition of 

 the works of Sir Isaac Newton. 



On 20th of June this year the Bishop was introduced to 

 the Club by the President, and there were present, besides 

 Sir Joseph Banks, some of those who had most vehemently 

 opposed the Reverend Doctor in his contest with the Presi- 

 dent and Council, and resented the arrogance and truculence 

 of his attack. In the records of the Club there is no 

 mention of what led to his reappearance ; whether the long- 

 deferred reconciliation came about on his suggestion or on 

 that of Banks or another member of the Club. We can 

 well believe that his separation from the Royal Society, 

 and all that its membership meant for a man of science, 

 had probably been a subject of regret to him all these years, 

 and the recollection of the painful circumstances which 

 attended that rupture would make his regret all the 

 keener. He was now past seventy years of age, and 

 it may have been his own wish not to go down to the 

 grave without an effort at reconciliation. As we shall 



