of Edinhurgh, Session 1883 - 84 . 
459 
purcliased ]STo. 40 George Street, in wMch the meetings were held 
until they obtained their present rooms in the Eoyal Institution. 
At a subsequent meeting, held on the 4th of August 1783, it was 
resolved that the Society should be divided into two classes, which 
should meet and deliberate separately, to be called the Physical 
Class, and the Literary class, with separate office-bearers. But I 
have detained you too long on the threshold by this desultory 
exordium. Let us now draw up the curtain, and display the 
Pounders of the Eoyal Society. 
The first President was Henry, Duke of Buccleuch, who had 
rendered great assistance in obtaining the Charter. The Vice- 
Presidents were the Eight Hon. Henry Dundas, and Sir Thomas 
Miller, the Lord J ustice-Clerk. 
I forbear to go over the names of what may be called the original 
members of the Society. I include in that term all who were 
elected within the first ten years. All the members of the Philo- 
sophical were assumed without ballot ; the rest, to the number of 
more than a hundred, were elected by ballot, and a general invita- 
tion was made to the Lords of Session to join. These were the 
ordinary resident members. There was also a list of non-resident 
members, which comprised nearly as many. Of the ordinary resident 
members there is hardly a name which is not known — I might say 
conspicuous, in the annals of Scotland at that time. Twelve of the 
Lords of Session accepted the invitation, including the Lord- 
President, the Lord Justice-Clerk, and the Lord Chief Baron of the 
day; upwards of twenty professors, with Principal Eobertson at 
their head ; twenty-two members of the Bar, including Sir Hay Camp- 
bell, the Lord Advocate — and of these at least fourteen rose after- 
wards to the bench; the medical contingent included Monro, 
Gregory, Cullen, and Home ; and the non-resident list contained the 
names of the Duke of Buccleuch, the Earl of Morton, the Earl of 
Bute, the Earl of Selkirk, Lord Daer, James Stuart Mackenzie, the 
Lord Privy Seal, Sir George Clerk Maxwell of Penicuick, Sir James 
Hall of Dunglass, and many other familiar names. But 1 select 
from the list those of the members on whom fell the burden of the 
real work ; and I venture to say that no city in Europe could have 
brought together a more distinguished circle. They were — Hay 
Campbell, Henry Dundas, Joseph Black, James Hutton, John Play- 
