Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 165 



charges brought against the late Sir Humphry Davy, when President 

 of the Royal Society, and also to the letter addressed to you by Sir 

 John Herschel, which appeared in the same Magazine for January, 

 partly in answer to mine, but less clear and satisfactory than I had 

 expected, may I beg the favour of you to allow the following corre- 

 spondence, in further vindication of the character of my brother, 

 to have a place in the next Number of your periodical ? A sense of 

 duty impels me to make this request, and I trust that a sense of 

 justice will induce you to comply with it. 



I am, Gentlemen, 

 Lesketh How, Ambleside, Your obedient Servant, 



January 19, 1865. John Davy. 



Dear Sir James, — I have to request your attention to a letter 

 addressed by Sir John Herschel to " The Editors of the Philoso- 

 phical Magazine and Journal/' and published in the Philosophical 

 Magazine of this month. 



As you were present at the Council of the Royal Society, held on 

 the 23rd November, 1826, I shall feel obliged if you will acquaint 

 me whether you consider the statements contained in that letter to 

 be perfectly accurate. 



I am, yours faithfully, 

 Lesketh How, near Ambleside, John Davy. 



January 3, 1865. 



Letter from Sir James South, F.R.S., to Dr. John Davy, F.R.S. 



The Observatory, Campden Hill, Kensington, 

 January 11, 1865. 



Dear Dr. John Davy, — Before I received your letter to me of 

 the 3rd inst., my attention had been directed to Sir John Herschel's 

 letter in the Philosophical Magazine of this month. 



I can, dear Dr. John Davy, assure you it was with great surprise 

 I read the representations of Mr. Babbage and Sir John Herschel, 

 in reference to the Secretaryship of the Royal Society in 1826, 

 because I knew them to be painfully inaccurate. 



Sir John Herschel, Mr. Gompertz, and I are the only members 

 now alive who constituted the Council of the Royal Society on 

 November 23, 1826, and I therefore, immediately after my perusal 

 of Sir John Herschel's letter, communicated in the following letter 

 with Mr. Gompertz, in order to ascertain what he knew upon the 

 subject. 



Observatory, Kensington, 

 January 2, 1865. 



My dear Mr. Gompertz, — May I be permitted to direct your 

 attention to the accompanying passages marked in red ink, contained 

 in Mr. Babbage' s work entitled " Passages from the Life of a Philo- 

 sopher," and in the Philosophical Magazine of December 1864 and 

 January 1865 ? 



It is stated by Mr. Babbage (p. 186), that at the Council of the 

 Royal Society, held Nov. 23rd, 1826, Dr. Wollaston, in reference 

 to the Secretaryship, " asked Sir Humphry Davy if he claimed the 



