XXX BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 
these causes was his action with regard to the election of 
Fellows. Owing to the absence of any scrutiny of the 
claims of the candidates proposed for the Fellowship, Banks 
announced his intention of performing this office himself, 
and of making known his views concerning each proposal 
to the Council and Fellows. This measure, which created 
considerable dissatisfaction amongst a certain section of the 
Fellows, was nevertheless necessary, owing to the recent 
election of numerous candidates of no scientific merit what- 
ever. “D’Alembert, in allusion to the extreme prodigality 
with which the honours of the Fellowship were distributed, 
was in use to ask jocularly any person going to England, if 
he desired to be made a Member, as he could easily obtain 
it for him, should he think it any honour. . . . Upon this 
subject Lord Brougham says: ‘Two principles were laid 
down by him [Banks]; first, that any person who had 
successfully cultivated science, especially by original inves- 
tigations, should be admitted, whatever might be his rank 
or fortune; secondly, that men of wealth, or station, disposed 
to promote, adorn, and patronise science, should, but with 
due caution and deliberation, be allowed to enter’” (Weld’s 
History of the Royal Society). 
A crisis was, however, brought about by the following 
circumstance. The Council, under the influence, it is said, 
of the President, passed a resolution recommending that the 
Foreign Secretary should reside in London; and _ this 
measure was followed by the resignation of Dr. Hutton, then 
Foreign Secretary, and Professor at Woolwich, who, it was 
complained, had neglected his duties as secretary of the 
Society. Dr. Horsley, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, 
attacked the President in very bitter terms, lamenting that 
the chair which had been filled by Newton should be thus 
lowered in dignity, and predicting all kinds of disasters as 
the direct consequence of electing a naturalist as President. 
He induced several influential members to follow him, but 
when the fact became clear, as it soon did, that he desired 
the reversion of the chair for himself, his influence declined ; 
he withdrew from the Society with a few intimates, and 
