Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/33

Rh a Privy Councillor, was an honorary member of the Board of Trade, the indulgence was granted" (Barrow, loc. cit. p. 29).

That Banks contemplated a voyage to the North Pole appears from a statement by Barrow that he announced such an intention at a meeting of the Batavian Society at Rotterdam in 1773, when he desired to be put in possession of such discoveries and observations as had been made by the Dutch, promising to acquaint them with any discoveries he might make in the course of such a voyage.

On his return from Iceland, Banks settled in Soho Square, where he accumulated a magnificent library (as well as at Revesby Abbey) and large collections, the whole being arranged in the most methodical manner. These business-like habits formed a marked feature in everything he undertook throughout his life, as to which interesting testimony is afforded by Barrow, who, during a visit shortly before Banks's death, was shown his papers and correspondence carefully assorted and labelled. In this he received considerable assistance from his successive librarians, Solander and Dryander.

On the resignation of Sir John Pringle in November 1778, Banks was chosen to succeed him as President of the Royal Society, an honour for which he had incontestable claims, in his many sacrifices to science in all climates during the voyages to Newfoundland, round the world with Cook, and to Iceland, in his ardent love of natural science, his many accomplishments, his wealth and social position, his habitual intercourse with the king and with the heads of public departments whose influence was greatest for the furtherance of scientific research, and, above all, perhaps, in the disinterestedness with which he placed his collections and library at the disposal of all applicants of merit, and in the expenditure of his wealth.

Notwithstanding all these claims on the votes of the Fellows of the Society, Banks was not destined to retain tranquil possession of the Presidency, and two or three circumstances, arising out of the zeal with which he discharged his duties, made him several enemies. One of