272 Presidentship of Sir Humphry Davy 1821 



had not attended during the past twelve months and one 

 or two for still longer periods, the regulation as to absentees 

 was not put in force against any of them. One member, 

 Mr. Greville, had resigned. The vacancy thus caused was 

 filled by the election of Captain Henry Kater, about whom 

 some particulars have been given (p. 260). 



It has been already remarked how seldom any reference 

 to outside contemporaneous events is to be met with in 

 the chronicles of the Club. This year one such allusion 

 occurs. At the date July igth the whole entry consists 

 of three lines : " Coronation of George 4th. No atten- 

 dance." Had the event happened on any other day of 

 the week but Thursday there would probably have been 

 no mention of the coronation. But the festivities would 

 interfere with the usual routine at the " Crown and Anchor/' 

 not to speak of the illuminations and fireworks which, as 

 at the time of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (p. 32), even 

 philosophers liked to behold. 



The attendance at the dinners throughout the first half 

 of this year continued remarkably full. It was seldom 

 below ten, often above twenty. On one occasion (8th 

 February) it rose to thirty-one, but this number included 

 eleven guests, among whom were two foreigners, MM. 

 Mirebec and Picaut. Later in the spring Mr. Davies Gilbert 

 introduced M. Rigaud, and the President brought M. Reimker. 

 The most noted stranger at the dinners of the Club this 

 year was the distinguished geometer and statistician Charles 

 Dupin, introduced by Sir Humphry Davy. From 1816 to 

 1821 this enlightened Frenchman was engaged in making 

 an exhaustive enquiry into the organisation of the army 

 and the administrative and political institutions of Great 

 Britain. The results of his labours were published at Paris 

 (1820-1824) in six quarto volumes with three folio atlases. 

 He was so filled with admiration for what he saw here 

 that he could not conceal his sympathies. When the first 

 part appeared in 1820, however, the French Government 

 insisted on his suppressing the encomiastic passages and 

 when he refused, his work was interdicted, especially to 



