ction which had
become insignificant from its unlimited extension.

It should be observed, that all members contribute equally, and that
the sum now required is fifty pounds. It used, until lately, to be
ten pounds on entrance, and four pounds annually. The amount of this
subscription is so large, that it is calculated to prevent many men
of real science from entering the Society, and is a very severe tax on
those who do so; for very few indeed of the cultivators of science
rank amongst the wealthy classes. Several times, whilst I have been
consulting books or papers at Somerset House, persons have called to
ask the Assistant-secretary the mode of becoming a member of the Royal
Society. I should conjecture, from some of these applications, that it
is not very unusual for gentlemen in the country to order their agents
in London to take measures for putting them up at the Royal Society.

SECTION 2. OF THE PRESIDENCY AND VICE-PRESIDENCIES.

Why Mr. Davies Gilbert became President of the Royal Society I cannot
precisely say. Let him who penned, and those who supported this
resolution solve the enigma:

"It was Resolved,

"That it is the opinion of the Council that Davies Gilbert, Esq. is by
far the most fit person to be proposed to the Society at the approaching
anniversary as President, and that he be recommended accordingly."

To resolve that he was a FIT person might have been sufficiently
flattering: to state that he was the most fit, was a little hard upon
the rest of the Society; but to resolve that he was "BY FAR THE MOST
FIT" was only consistent with that strain of compliment in which his
supporters indulge, and was a eulogy, by no means unique in its kind, I
believe, even at that very Council.

That Mr. Gilbert is a most amiable and kind-hearted man will be
instantly admitted by all who are, in the least degree, acquainted with
him: that he is fit for the chair of the Royal Society, will be allowed
by few, except those who have committed themselves to the above-quoted
resolution.

Possessed of knowledge and of fortune more than sufficient for it, he
might have been the restorer of its lustre. He might have called round
him, at the council board, those most actively engaged in the pursuits
of science, most anxious for the improvement of the Royal Society.
Instead of himself proposing resolutions, he might have been, what a
chairman ought to be, the organ of the body over which he presides. By
the fir