XXXIX 



that it will not be dispersed, but, in accordance with the wishes of 

 Dr. Percy's family, will be preserved in connexion with the School 

 of Mines, where he taught so long, and exhibited to the public at 

 South Kensington, as the " Percy Collection." 



The most cursory examination of his writings will serve to show 

 the rigid precision with which he wrote. Sometimes when his 

 sympathy or indignation was aroused he would adopt a more florid 

 though not less effective style, of which it would be difficult to find 

 more characteristic examples than the two extracts here placed in 

 conjunction, both relating to the exhaustion of our national supply 

 of coal, and both being exponents of his patriotic wishes for the wel- 

 fare of his country. Speaking of a well-known coal-field, he says, 

 " This magnificent bed of coal has been most barbarously treated. 

 The pits have generally been worked by contractors under the super- 

 intendence of viewers, called ground bailiffs. In consequence of the 

 rapacity and rascality of many of the former, and of the ignorance, 

 inattention, and fraudulent connivance of many of the latter, an 

 enormous amount of coal has been irremediably lost to the nation." 

 After an interval of ten years he said, in concluding his Presidential 

 Address at the Iron and Steel Institute, " There is a question which 

 must often occur to us, namely, what will Great Britain be when our 

 vast reservoir of material force, coal, is exhausted .... The 

 time must come when, in consequence of that exhaustion, Great 

 Britain will cease to be a great manufacturing nation, . . . but, 

 however mournful and unwelcome this proposition may be, we have 

 the satisfaction of knowing that we are now laying the foundation of 

 prosperous and mighty kingdoms in various parts of the world 

 which we hope will be the strongholds of virtue, of order, and of 

 freedom .... The glory of old England may, after all, not 

 depart; on the sites of the soot-stained Birminghams and Man ch esters 

 new and splendid cities may arise where the merchant princes, of 

 Anglo-Saxon descent, from the remotest parts of the globe shall re- 

 joice to dwell and end their days in peace." 



Dr. Percy's public utterances were but few, and the above formed 

 a part of the last of them. He led a retired life and was hardly ever 

 seen at Scientific Societies, though he was frequently at the Athenaeum 

 and was well-known at the Garrick Club. 



He married in June, 1839, Miss Grace Mary Piercy, the only 

 daughter of Mr. J. E. Piercy, of Warley Hall, near Birmingham. 

 Those who knew him best feel that the loss of his wife, in 1880, 

 greatly changed him. 



Official recognition of his admirable labours there is none to record, 

 but many Scientific Societies and Institutions conferred on him their 

 membership. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1847, 

 and served on its Council in 1857-59 ; he was awarded the Millar Prize 



