SALE OF THE LINN.EAN COLLECTIONS. 313 



ter. I never was in S'wff/fn at any time of my life. — In due time the 



Professor sent an accurate catalogue of books, and a general account 

 " of the other articles. But by this tim .he mother and sisters of Lin- 

 « N,Eus began to think, they had been too precipitate. 1 hey had 

 « been in great haste to sell the collection before the return of the 



King o[ Sweden, perhaps lest she might be obliged to sell it to the 

 " Univei-sity of Upsal, at a cheap rate ; and they had pitched upon Sir 

 " Joseph Banks, as the most opulent and zealous naturalist in Europe-, 

 " thinking he would give more for it than any body else, and at the 

 " same time they fixed lOOO guineas as probably the largest sum that 

 " could be thought of.. 



*' But while they were in treaty with me, enquiries were made, 

 « which gave them an higher idea of the value of the coUeftion, and 

 " they had. wn/mz/ec^ offers Jrovi Russia. They therefore wan ed to 

 " break off tlieir negotiation with me; but Professor Acre.l would not 

 « consent to that, and insisted on their waiting for my refusal. For 

 " this honourable condudl he has unfortunately incurred their censure, 

 " and all sorts of false reports have been raised against him, such as, 

 " that I had bribed him with 100 guineas, which however is so far 

 from being the case, that he never had a present from me, except a few 

 " Eng'ish books out of the LinntEan library, (worth about six oreight 

 " guineas,! which he desired to purchase of me, as he could ixjt get 

 *' them in Sweden, and which I prevailed on him with some difficulty 



to accept. I thought this a very small and inadequate return for the 

 « trouble he had on my account, and it surely could not be con:-. 

 " sidered as a bribe. 



