and am desirous of being a Fellow of the Royal Society, if I can be supposed worthy of having my name so honourably enrolled."
Extract from a Letter of J. G. Children, Esq. to A. F. M. Esq. dated, British Museum, March 24, 1830.
"All that you have said respecting your being a candidate for admission into the Royal Society, is correct to the letter. I pressed the subject upon you, and I would do it again to-morrow, were it necessary."
Here, then, we find Mr. Children, who has been on the Council of the Royal Society, and who was, a few years since, one of its Secretaries, pressing one of his friends to become, and actually insisting on proposing him as, a Fellow of the Royal Society. He must have been well aware of the feelings which prevail amongst the Council as to the propriety of such a step, and by publishing the fact, seems quite satisfied that such a course is advantageous to the interests of the Society. That similar applications were not unfrequently made in private, is well known; but it remains for the Society to consider whether, now they are publicly and officially announced to them, it will sanction this mode of augmenting the already numerous list of its fellows.
