cers of a body who may reasonably be supposed to entertain towards him feelings either of gratitude or expectation.
The late Board of Longitude was another source of patronage, which, although now abolished, it may be useful to hint at.
There were three members to be appointed by the Royal Society: these were honorary, and, as no salary was attached, it might have been expected that this limited number of appointments would have been given in all cases to persons qualified for them. But no: it was convenient to pay compliments; and Lord Colchester, whose talents and knowledge insured him respect as Speaker of the House of Commons, or as a British nobleman, was placed for years in the situation as one of the Commissioners of the Board of Longitude, for which every competent judge knew him to be wholly unfit. What was the return which he made for this indulgence? Little informed respecting the feelings of the Society, and probably misinformed by the party whose influence had placed him there, he saved them in the day of their peril.
When the state of the Society had reached such a point that many of the more scientific members felt that some amendment was abso-
