Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 481 



dictation, or afterwards set it aside on the ground of its irregu- 

 larity"*. 



From whom, I would ask, and did ask Mr. Babbage, had he this in- 

 formation? In a letter which I have received from him of the 17th 

 of September in reply to one from me, he writes, " With respect to 

 what took place at that Council, the late Dr. Fitton, who was pre- 

 sent, gave me the account I have stated." Mr. Babbage added, 

 "Not long before his death, Dr. Fitton gave me several MSS. and 

 other papers which he thought might be interesting to my family. 

 He then again related the account of the Council which I have given 

 in my work." 



On this I remark, that Dr. Fitton was not then on the Council f, 

 and that I have been assured by one of the three surviving members 

 of that Council %, that no such words as those atttibuted to Dr. 

 Wollaston were spoken, and that there was no discussion of any 

 kind on the occasion. 



Mr. Herschel, now Sir John Herschel, was one of those present ; 

 and I would ask, why has not Mr. Babbage adduced him as his in- 

 formant ? From what I have learnt he would not support Mr. Bab- 

 bage in the statement, nor indeed in the statement that Sir Hum- 

 phry Davy had promised him that Mr. Babbage should be his col- 

 league. 



I would further remark that, inasmuch as Dr. Wollaston and Sir 

 H. Davy had been so long Secretaries together, it seems highly im- 

 probable that the former would question the latter in the manner 

 asserted. It is true that the President has not the right of naming 

 for a Secretaryship ; but it is equally true that it had become the 

 usage : Mr. Babbage himself was fully aware of this ; for at p. 140 

 of his ' Reflections on the Decline of Science in England,' published 

 in 1830, he states, of the officers and Council of the Society, "the 

 fact is that they are the private nominations by the President ; " and, 

 at p. 72, on the authority of the late Mr. Barrow, he affirms, " that 

 it had been the custom for years for the President of the Royal So- 

 ciety to nominate the Council." 



In my letter to Mr. Babbage, adverting in conclusion to the affair 

 of the Secretaryship, I wrote, " that you felt aggrieved is certain 

 from what you have stated," adding, "I need hardly remark that 

 too often under that state of feeling, an animus is created which 

 tends to misinterpretation. Had you called on the President for an 

 explanation at the time, would it not have been more in accordance 

 with what is just and honourable than to have brought such a charge 

 against him after his death [after an interval of 35 years] ? He 

 might have stated reasons, if not reconciling you to your disappoint- 

 ment, yet amply justifying his conduct, or convincing you that you 

 laboured under a mistake as to a promise." 



* Op. cit. p. 18/. 



t In the Council-book, I am informed by the Assistant-Secretary that 

 there is no minute respecting either the nomination of Mr. Babbage or Mr. 

 Children as Secretarv at the Meeting in question, that held at 8 p.m., on 

 the 16th November, "1826. 



X These were Mr. Gompertz, Mr. Herschel, and Mr. South. 



