Page:Reflections on the decline of science in England - Babbage - 1830.pdf/169

 of the President, arising from offices not belonging to the Society. He is, ex officio, a Trustee of the British Museum; and it may seem harsh to maintain that he is not a fit person to hold such a situation. It is no theoretical view, but it is the experience of the past which justifies the assertion; and I fear that unless he has the sole responsibility for some specific appointments, and unless his judgment is sharpened by the fear of public discussion, a President of the Royal Society, in the Board-room of the British Museum, is quite as likely as another person to sacrifice his public duty to the influence of power, or to private friendship. With respect to the merits of that Institution, I have no inclination at present to inquire: but when it is considered that there is at this moment attached to it no one whose observations or whose writings have placed him even in the second rank amongst the naturalists of Europe, the President of the Royal Society has given some grounds for the remark made by several members of the Society, that he is a little too much surrounded by the offi