This principle is equally applicable to the conduct of a
Secretary of State, or to that of a constable; to that of a
Secretary of the Royal Society, or of an adviser to the
Admiralty.

With respect to honorary officers, the case is in some measure
different. But the President of a society, although not
recompensed by any pecuniary remuneration, enjoys a station, when
the body over which he presides possesses a high character, to
which many will aspire, who will esteem themselves amply repaid
for the time they devote to the office, by the consequence
attached to it in public estimation. He, therefore, is
answerable to the Society for his conduct in their chair.

There are several societies in which the secretaries, and other
officers, have very laborious duties, and where they are unaided
by a train of clerks, and yet no pecuniary remuneration is given
to them. Science is much indebted to such men, by whose quiet and
unostentatious labours the routine of its institutions is carried
on. It would be unwise, as well as ungrateful, to judge severely
of the inadvertencies, or even of the negligence of such persons:
nothing but weighty causes should justify such a course.

Whilst, however, I contend for the principle of discussion and
inquiry in its widest sense, because I consider it equally the
safeguard of our scientific as of our political institutions, I
shall use it, I hope, temperately; and having no personal
feelings myself, but living in terms of intercourse with almost
all, and of intimacy with several of those from whom I most
widely differ, I shall not attempt to heap together all the