ao8 UEMARKABLE OCCURRENCES 



worthiest manner. He was called to the remote kingdom of Spain, an 

 honour never before conferred upon any Protestant literatus, there to 

 be botanist to his Catholic Majesty at Madrid, and the terms proposed 

 to him were of the most advantageous kind. His Spanish Majesty 

 would allow him an annual pension of 2000 piasters, the free exercise 

 of his religion, and create him a nobleman. This offer was made to 

 him by the Duke de Grimaldi, Prime Minister of Spain from the 

 year 1773 till 1776. 



The Duke's letter with the answer of Linn.'Eus, — are both among 

 the epistolar correspendence now in the possession of Dr. James Ed- 

 ward Smith, of London. Linn;t:us considering what had been done 

 for him at Upial, considering the respe£l and favour which were shown 

 him by the Swedish court, and on the part of his fellow-citizens, gene- 

 rously declined accepting this flattering and honourable offer. He 

 procured it to Do8:or Loefling, one of his pupils, whom fate would 

 not suffer to enjoy it long. Like the South-West of Europe, so did 

 the residence of the vast empire of Russia wish to possess our lumi- 

 nary. Proposals were made to him from St. Petersburgh, in conse- 

 quence of which he was to have been professor of botany, and eleftcd 

 an ordinary member of the imperial academy of sciences, &:c. But 

 LiNNiEUS had his reasons for slighting all these invitations, because 

 his country truly valued and rewarded his merits. 



He was raised to a distinftion, which had never before fallen to the 

 share of any Swedish man of letters. King Frederick 1. founded in 

 1748 the order of the Polar Star for men of merit in the civil line, 

 and Frederick Adolph us his successor, granted it on the 27th of April 

 1753, first to LiNN;Eus, in preference to all other learned men. The 



offer 



