of
the merits of the various subjects likely to be brought under the
consideration of the Society, anatomy, chemistry, and the different
branches of natural history, will share with the numerous departments of
physical science, in claiming to be represented by persons competently
skilled in those subjects. These claims being satisfied, but few places
will be left to fill up with mathematicians, astronomers, and persons
conversant with nautical astronomy.

Let us look at the present Council. Is there a single mathematician
amongst them, if we except Mr Barlow, whose deservedly high reputation
rests chiefly on his physical and experimental inquiries, and whom the
President and the Admiralty have clearly shown they do not look upon as
a mathematician, by not appointing him an adviser?

Small as the number of those persons on the Council, who are conversant
with the three subjects named in the Act of Parliament, must usually
be, it may be still further diminished. The President, when he forms
his Council, may decline naming those members who are most fit for such
situations. Or, on the other hand, some of those members who are best
qualified for them, from their knowledge, may decline the honour of
being the nominees of Mr. Gilbert, as Vice Presidents, Treasurers, or
Councillors, and thus lending their names to support a system of which
they disapprove.

Whether the first of these causes has ever operated can be best
explained by those gentlemen who have been on the Council. The refusals
are, notwithstanding the President's taciturnity on the subject, better
known than he is willing that they should be.

Having discussed the general policy of the measure, with reference both
to the Society and to the public, and without the slightest reference
to the individuals who may have refused or accepted those situations, I
shall now examine the propriety of the appointments that have been made.

Doubtless the gentlemen who now hold those situations either have never
considered the influence such a mode of selection would have on the
character of the Council; or, having considered it, they must have
arrived at a different conclusion from mine. There may, however,
be arguments which I have overlooked, and a discussion of them must
ultimately lead to truth: but I confess that it appears to me the
objections which have been stated rest on principles of human nature,
too deeply seated to be easily removed.

That I am not singular