ROYAL SOCIETY GF LITERATURE. 21 
we want it elsewhere, to distinguish that very 
distinct class of persons, with which agricul- 
ture 1s a science! We may observe, by the 
way, that our good old word, husbandman, is 
of Saxon derivation; and that of farmer, 
(fermier,) Norman.” 
‘* We have many other names and phrases, 
I believe,” continued Miss Aston, ‘* that are 
literally indefensible ?” 
““ Yes; and none more so, I repeat, than 
those in which we servilely and ignorantly 
take up something that is French! There is 
not, from one end of the kingdom to the 
other, a combination of words more illiterate 
than those which occur in this title,—‘ The 
Royal Society of Literature!’ What should 
we have said, if the Zoological Society had 
called itself a Society of Zoology; the Geo- 
logical Society, a Society of Geology ; a Bo- 
tanical Society, a Society of Botany, or even 
a Society of Plants, Vegetables, or Potatoes ; 
or, if the Society of Antiquaries were called 
a Society of Antiquities, or of Antiquity ; 
or, even if the poor Mechanic Institutes 
had blazoned themselves, Societies of Me- 
chanism ?” 
