25a HONOURS PAID TO THE 



many of the members were absent, yet the institution continued to sub- 

 sist, and the number of its members increased every day. 



In the beginning of August 1790, the motion of ere£ling.a monument 

 to LiNN^us was again renewed; and as it was not convenient to be- 

 stow any considerable expences upon it at first, a resolution was entered 

 into of erefting a plain stone-monument in the wood of St. Ger- 

 rnain^ at the distance of a few leagues from Pavis^ with the words 

 Gh ARLEs Lin N E, engraved upon it. Most of the members, who were 

 present at the meeting when this resolution was taken, went on a Sun- 

 day to St. Germain. A short time befoxe, some troubles had brol<jen out 

 there between the inhabitants and die national guards ; and whenever three 

 or four individuals were seen together in any place,- the people always 

 thought that some plot was going forward. The members of the so- 

 ciety, about forty in number, heedless of the troubles and ferment, fully 

 experienced this disposition of the people on their arrival. The popu- 

 lace manifested their suspicions at the meeting of so numerous a 

 society by the bitterest inve£lives, and declared the good and innocent 

 LiNN^ANs to be a horde of aristocrats, meditating some dangerous 

 plot. At this serious junfture the matter was on the point of being ter- 

 minated by fighting and bloodshed, as some members, conscious of their 

 innocence, and fired with their enthusiastic resolution of erefting the 

 monument, attempted to aggravate the fury of the enraged multitude by 

 warm and spirited remonstrances. 



What roused and fostered most the suspicions of the populace, were 

 the tin-boxes which some of the members bore across their shoulder, fes- 

 tened with a broad, ribband. They had brought those cases to put in them 

 such plants as they might collect on their way. It fortunately, however, so 



happened. 



