ao8 
REMARKABLE 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*us considering what had been done 
for him at Upsal, considering the respeD 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 DoCtor 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 elected 
an ordinary member- of the imperial academy of sciences, &c. But 
Li nnsus had his reasons for slighting all these invitations, because 
his country truly valued and rewarded his merits. 
He was raised to a distinction, which had never before fallen to the 
share of any Swedish man of letters. King Frederick I. founded in 
1748 the order of the Polar Star for men of merit in the civil line, 
and Frederick Adolphus his successor, granted it on the 27th of April 
1753s ^ rst to 1 -nnalus, in [preference to all other learned men. The 
offer 
