266 Presidentship of Sir Joseph Banks 1819 



on the practice of medicine, but he soon found that law 

 would suit him better, and he became a barrister of Lin- 

 coln's Inn. But his ambition sought a wider field in politics. 

 He first entered the Irish, then the English parliament, and 

 filled a succession of public offices, for his services in which 

 he was raised in 1800 to the Irish peerage, but with the 

 Scottish title of Baron Glenbervie of Kincardine. Thereafter 

 he was appointed successively joint Paymaster-general, 

 Surveyor-general of Woods and Forests and finally Surveyor- 

 general of the land revenue as well as of the Woods and 

 Forests. In the spring of 1795, in the midst of his parlia- 

 mentary career, he had been elected a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society. He died in 1823, and his title then became extinct. 



The Navy, had a worthy representative in Sir Murray 

 Maxwell. He entered the service in 1790 and took part 

 in much active work, greatly distinguishing himself by his 

 skill, boldness and success. On his way back from China, 

 with Lord Amherst on board, his vessel, in navigating the 

 little-known and badly-charted Straits of Caspar, ran on 

 a rock and sustained fatal damage. The officers and crew, 

 however, were soon rescued by an East India Company's 

 ship. Arriving in England in August 1817, Maxwell had 

 of course to be court-martialled, but he was entirely ex- 

 onerated from blame, and received warm praise for his 

 conduct at the wreck. He was knighted in the following 

 year. These events were fresh in the recollection of the 

 public when he dined with the Club on nth March of this 

 year. He had been made a Fellow of the Royal Society 

 three weeks before. 



Another naval officer who has already been mentioned 

 (p. 256) and whose name will appear on subsequent pages, 

 Captain Basil Hall, dined several times at the " Crown 

 and Anchor " in the last weeks of the year. 



Two foreigners were among the guests this year, Prince 

 Walkouski and Count Dallier, the Sardinian ambassador. 



Before passing on to the record of the following year 

 we may note that before the next anniversary Sir Joseph 

 Banks, who for so long a period presided over the 



