MEMOIR OF DR. WALKER. 47 
of the university, and of many documents tending 
to illustrate the history, antiquities, and laws of 
Scotland, from being deposited in the library of the 
Faculty of Advocates. But, above all, the posses- 
sion of a museum of natural history might enable 
and induce the Society of Antiquaries to institute a 
lectureship of natural history, in opposition to the 
professorship in the university. 
The curators of the Advocates’ Library, too, were 
likewise induced to join in the clamour against the 
Society, and to write to the Lord Advocate to pre- 
vent the obnoxious Antiquaries from becoming an 
incorporated body, lest their own magnificent col- 
lection should be impeded in its progress by the 
interception of ancient Scottish manuscripts and 
muniments destined for them, but which might be 
sent to enrich the repository of a new and active 
competitor. The Lord Advocate, however, wisely 
judging that no such pernicious consequences would 
follow, but that both might exist prosperously toge- 
ther, and, acting as honourable rivals, by mutual 
emulation promote the common cause, rather for- 
warded the application, and on the 6th of May, 
1783, the royal charter to the Society of the Anti- 
quaries of Scotland was finally ratified, his majesty 
George III. having voluntarily declared himself 
their patron. Mr. Smellie’s lectures, however, did 
not proceed, but they afterwards appeared in a 
more permanent form, under the title of “ The 
Philosophy of Natural History,” forming two re- 
spectable quartos. 
