264 Presidentship of Sir Joseph Banks 1819 



continued to preside at most of the weekly meetings for 

 eight months afterwards. He was still President of the 

 Royal Society and continued to fill that office until his 

 death next year. Yet the Treasurer concludes his minute 

 thus : " Resolved that Sir Humphry Davy be President 

 and Mr. Moore Treasurer, and that the thanks of the Club 

 be given to the latter for his care of the Accounts." In 

 the Minutes of the Anniversary of 1820 it is stated that 

 " the minutes of 8th July 1819 were read and confirmed." 

 It is hardly conceivable that this blunder of substituting 

 the name of Sir Humphry Davy for that of Sir Joseph Banks 

 could have been read aloud without at once being pointed 

 out by the audience. 1 The suspicion arises that his minutes 

 of the Anniversaries, like those of the weekly meetings, 

 were written on slips of paper, not always during the pro- 

 ceedings, or immediately after, but when his recollection 

 was not always clear as to details, and that at some sub- 

 sequent time they were neatly copied by an amanuensis 

 into the Minute-book, where they remain without alteration. 

 As will be pointed out in the narrative of later years, the 

 Minutes of the Anniversaries during this Treasurer's tenure 

 of office after 1824 were not copied into the book kept for 

 the purpose, and have only been imperfectly recovered. 



Regarding the two new members added to the Club at 

 the anniversary of 1819, a few words may here be inserted. 



H. T. Colebrooke had spent many years in India, where 

 he not only held several legal posts in succession, but made 

 himself an able Sanscrit scholar. He published among other 

 works an " Essay on the Vedas," and a Sanscrit grammar 

 and Lexicon. He returned to England in 1814 and was 

 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1816. 



Sir Alexander Johnston has been already referred to 

 (p. 235) as frequently dining with the Club, and he now 

 proved an assiduous and active member. He became F.R.S. 

 in 1810. 



1 This Anniversary in 1820 was presided over by Dr. Wollaston, who 

 was elected by the Council of the Royal Society to fill the vacant office 

 of President till the election of officers on next St. Andrew's Day. 



