s necessary
for placing a Fellow in the first class, that class would only consist
of seventy-two members, which is nearly the same as the number of those
of the Institute of France. If only those who had contributed three or
more were admitted, then this class would be reduced to fifty-one. In
either of these cases it would obviously become a matter of ambition
to belong to the first class; and a more minute investigation into the
value of each paper would naturally take place before it was admitted
into the Transactions. Or it might be established that such papers only
should be allowed to count, as the Committee, who reported them as fit
to be printed, should also certify. The great objection made to such
an arrangement was, that it would be displeasing to the rest of the
Society, and that they had a vested right (having entered the Society
when no distinction was made in the lists) to have them always continued
without one.

Without replying to this shadow of an argument of vested rights, I will
only remark that he who maintains this view pays a very ill compliment
to the remaining 600 members of the Royal Society; since he does,
in truth, maintain that those gentlemen who, from their position,
accidentally derive reputation which does not belong to them, are
unwilling, when the circumstance is pointed out, to allow the world
to assign it to those who have fairly won it; or else that they
are incapable of producing any thing worthy of being printed in the
Transactions of the Royal Society. Lightly as the conduct of the
Society, as a body, has compelled me to think of it, I do not think so
ill of the personal character of its members as to believe that if the
question were fairly stated to them, many would object to it.

Amongst the alterations which I considered most necessary to the
renovation of the Society, was the recommendation, by the expiring
Council, of those whom they thought most eligible for that of the
ensuing year.

The system which had got into practice was radically bad: it is
impossible to have an INDEPENDENT Council if it is named by ONE PERSON.
Our statutes were framed with especial regard to securing the fitness
of the members elected to serve in the Council; and the President is
directed, by those statutes, at the two ordinary meetings previous to
the anniversary, to give notice of the elections, and "to declare how
much it importeth the good of the Society that such persons may be
chosen int