1813.] Br, Joseph Vrksiley, 99 



burning zeal which distinguishes all converts, was provoked at 

 Dr. Priestley's answer to his book on the French revokition, and 

 took every opportunity to inveigh against him in the House of 

 Commons. The conduct of the French, likewise, who made Dr^ 

 Priestley a citizen of France, and chose him a member of their 

 Assembly, though intended as a compliment, was injurious to 

 him here. It was laid hold of by his antagonists to convince 

 the people that he was an enemy to this country ; that he had 

 abjured his rights as an Englishman ; and had adopted the 

 principles of the hereditary enemies of Great Britain. These 

 causes, and not his political opinions, appear to me to account 

 for the persecution which was raised against him. This perse 

 cution is deeply to be lamented, as it interrupted his pursuits^ 

 destroyed the fruits of several years of labour, and drove him to 

 a country where it was out of his power to pursue his scientific 

 experiments with the same advantage as he would have done at 

 Birmingham. We have been deprived, in consequence, of many 

 important and curious discoveries, which he would have brouglit 

 to light had he been left unmolested. Perhaps, however, the 

 change was in reality of advantage to his reputation. He had 

 carried his peculiar researches nearly as far as they could go. 

 To arrange and methodize them, a different branch of chemical 

 science was necessary, which he had not cultivated, and which 

 his characteristic rapidity rendered it difficult for him to culti- 

 vate. It is possible, therefore, that by prosecuting his labours 

 he might have injured his reputation, instead of promoting itj 

 and might have lost that eminent situation as a man of science 

 which he had so long occupied. 



Article 11^ 



Memorandums respecting some Mi?ierals from Gree?ilandi 

 By Thomas Allan, Esq. Edinburgh.^ 



On a former occasion I submitted to the Society some obser- 

 vations on a mineral which I supposed to be crystallized gadoli- 

 nhe. Since that time I have had an opportunity of obtaining 

 the only unequivocal test by which the real nature of any new or 

 uncertain fossil can be known. Dr. Thomson kindly undertook 

 the chemical investigation of it ; and has had the satisfaction to 

 discover this mineral to be a substance entu-ely new. The result 

 of his labours he communicated to the Society, together with 

 the analysis of another new mineral found in the same parcel. I 



* Read by Mr., Allao before the Royal Society of E^icbyreh on ih^ 20tfe 

 April, 1813. 



G 2 



