Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 483 



appear that, if the whole of the impression had been sold at trade 

 price, Mr. Murray would have been a loser, and to no inconsiderable 

 amount, viz. £94 Is. lid. May I be allowed to ask what is the 

 inference ? Is it not a logical conclusion that the publisher expected 

 that the demand for the ' Discourses ' would have been so great as to 

 require more than one edition, so as to remunerate him for his out- 

 lay ? Nor, it may be presumed, was such an expectation, though 

 not realized, unreasonable, taking into account the demand for a pre- 

 ceding work of the author's, the ' Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry,' 

 which passed through several editions, and for the copyright of 

 which he received £1000, and £50 for every fresh edition, and the 

 demand also for a later and for a posthumous work, ' Salmonia ' and 

 1 Consolations in Travel. 5 Nor, when we further consider how 

 highly the 'Discourses' were approved, should the sum payed for them 

 by a liberal and enterprising publisher, such as was the late Mr. 

 Murray, excite surprise. * 



It may perhaps be said that the President should have presented 

 the copyright of the ' Discourses ' to the Royal Society. Had the 

 Society been in want of funds, there would have been a just reason 

 for making a present to it ; but as the Society's funds were ample, 

 such a present was no wise needed; at least, such we must infer 

 was the opinion of the Council. That he was considered free from 

 blame in the transaction, may be inferred from the circumstance that 

 on his resigning the Chair of the Royal Society on account of failing 

 health, a vote of thanks to him, proposed by the Council, of which 

 Council Mr. Babbage was a member, was unanimously agreed to by 

 the Society : the following is a copy of it ; the original, now in my 

 possession, is formally written on parchment : — " At a meeting of the 

 Royal Society, held on Thursday the 15th of November, 1827, the 

 President stated from the chair that he was directed by the Council 

 to submit the following resolution to the Society, which was unani- 

 mously agreed to — That the regret of the Fellows of the Royal Society 

 be expressed in the strongest terms to their late excellent President, 

 Sir Humphry Davy, Baronet, for the state of health which has unhap- 

 pily compelled him to relinquish the chair, together with their thanks 

 for the unremitting diligence with which he has at all times en- 

 deavoured to promote the interests of science and the welfare of the 

 Royal Society, and for the learned and eloquent discourses with 

 which at each Anniversary during his Presidency, he concluded the 

 business of the year." 



I have repressed my feelings in writing thus calmly on such a 

 subject. When I call to mind the little regard my brother had for 

 wealth — that to enrich himself he would never take out a patent, 

 though urged so to do, for the safety lamp, or for the protection of 

 the copper sheathing of ships, at a time it promised to be of the 

 greatest use * — I must confess at least astonishment that, when dead, 



* At that time, in a letter to me, expressing his sanguine expectations 

 of success, after adverting to the fortune (" the immense fortune") he might 

 make if he had chosen to take out a patent for the invention, and that he 

 had determined to give it to his country, he added, " in everything con- 



