by M. Biot, and made in the name of a Commission appointed by the Institute to accomplish the intention of Bonaparte, who, when First Consul, founded prizes for important discoveries in Electricity or Galvanism.

It is an opinion very generally received, that despotism is hostile to the progress of Philosophy - that the suspicion natural to tyranny, and the fear that light should expose its deformity, have, under such circumstance, inspired a dread of any thing approaching to freedom of enquiry. The conduct of Napoleon, not only during his Consulate, but even after he had assumed the Purple, is in direct opposition to such an opinion. Now that the excitements of national hostility have subsided, and the asperity of our feelings towards that extraordinary man has been softened by time and prosperity, we are enabled to discern the bright and sunny spots in his character.

Not to mention the immense plans which his genius suggested for the internal improvement of France, the annals of the Institute would furnish innumerable proofs of the zeal with which he encouraged Science, and promoted its interests.

His liberation of Dolomieu from the dungeons of Tarentum was an act not only remarkable for the considerate regard it displayed for Science, but for the spirit and eagerness with which it was effected. The French government had repeatedly made the most urgent demands for the liberty of one who had reflected so much credit on his country;-the Danes had also directed the interference of their Minister, and the King of Spain had added his solicitations in vain:-no sooner, however, had the astonishing campaign which terminated by the victory of Marengo, completely established the French Republic, than Bonaparte, in making peace with Naples, stipulated for the immediate deliverance of Dolomieu, as the first article of the treaty.

The following letter from Bonaparte, addressed to the Minister of the Interior, and by him transmitted to the Institute, expresses the intentions of the First Consul, in founding prizes for important discoveries in Electricity or Galvanism.

"I intend, Citizen Minister, to found a prize, consisting of a Medal of three thousand francs, (about one hundred and twenty pounds sterling,) for the best experiment which shall be made in the course of each year, on the Galvanic fluid.

"For this purpose, the Memoirs containing the details of the said experiments shall be sent before the First of Fructidor, to the class of the Ma

thematical and Physical Sciences, which in the complimentary days shall adjudge the prize to the author of that experiment which has been most useful to the progress of science.

"I also desire to give, by the way of encouragement, the sum of sixty thousand francs to the person who, by his experiments and discoveries, shall, according to the opinion of the Class, advance the knowledge of Electricity and Galvanism as much as Franklin and Volta did.* *

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Foreigners of all nations are admitted to the competition.

"I beg you will make known these dispositions to the President of the First Class of the National Institute, that it may give to these ideas such developement as may appear proper; my particular object being to encourage philosophers, and to direct their attention to this part of philosophy, which, in my opinion, may lead to great discoveries.

Upon the presentation of this letter, a Committee was appointed to consider the means for accomplishing the intentions of the First Consul; and after expatiating upon the extensive agencies of Electricity, their Report concludes in the following manner :

"To fulfil the intention of the First Consul, and to give to the competition all the solemnity which the importance of the object, the nature of the Prize, and the character of the Founder require, the Commissioners unanimously propose as follows:

"The Class of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences of the National Institute, opens the general competition required by the First Consul.

"All the learned of Europe, and the Members and Associates of the Institute, are admitted to the competition.

"The Class does not require that the Memoirs should be immediately addressed to it. Every year it will crown the author of the best experiments which shall come to its knowledge, and which shall have advanced the progress of the science.

*" À celui qui, par ses expériences et ses découvertes, fera à faire à l'Electricité et au Galvanisme un pas comparable celui qu'ont fait faire à ces Sciences Franklin et Volta."

My French correspondent adds, " Ces soixantes mille francs n'ont pas été adjugés, le pas n'ayant point été fait."

"The present report, containing the letter of the First Consul, shall be printed, and serve as a programme.

"Done at the National Institute, Messidor 11, year 10.

(Signed)

LAPLACE, HALLE, COULOMB,
HAUY. BIOT, Reporter."

It was not until twelve months after the publication of his first Bakerian Lecture, that Davy received the intelligence that the prize of three thousand francs had been awarded him by the Institute of France, for his discoveries announced in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1807.

Mr.Poole, in a late communication, informs me that he was in London soon after the letter, communicating this gratifying intelligence, had been received from France; and that Davy, upon shewing it to him, observed, "Some people say I ought not to accept this prize; and there have been foolish paragraphs in the papers to that effect; but if the two countries or governments are at war, the men of science are not. That would, indeed, be a civil war of the worst description; we should rather, through the instrumentality of men of science, soften the asperities of national hostility."

After Davy had been elected Secretary to the Royal Society, he appears to have been confined to town during the autumn of 1807, when he wrote the following letter.

TO THOMAS POOLE, ESQ.

MY DEAR POOLE,

August 28th, 1807.

I AM obliged to be in the neighbourhood of town during the greater part of the summer, for the purpose of correcting the press for the Philosophical Transactions.

I made a rapid journey into Cornwall for the sake of seeing my family, and it was not in my power, had I received your letter at Lyme, to have accepted your kind invitation.

If C- is still with you, will you be kind enough to say to him, that I wrote nearly a week ago two letters about lectures, and not knowing where he was, I addressed them to him at different places. I wish very much he would seriously determine on this point. The Managers of the Royal Institution are very anxious to engage him; and I think he might be of material service to the public, and of benefit to his own mind, to say nothing of the benefit his purse might also receive. In the present condition of society, his

opinions in matters of taste, literature, and metaphysics, must have a healthy influence; and unless he soon become an actual member of the living world, he must expect to be hereafter brought to judgment for hiding his light.'

The times seem to me to be less dangerous, as to the immediate state of this country, than they were four years ago. The extension of the French Empire has weakened the disposeable force of France. Bonaparte seems to have abandoned the idea of invasion, and if our Government is active, we have little to dread from a maritime war, at least for some time. Sooner or later, our Colonial Empire must fall in due time, when it has answered

its ends.

The wealth of our island must be diminished, but the strength of mind of the people cannot easily pass away; and our literature, our science, our arts, and the dignity of our nature, depend little upon our external relations. When we had fewer colonies than Genoa, we had Bacons and Shakspeares.

The wealth and prosperity of the country are only the comeliness of the body—the fulness of the flesh and fat;-but the spirit is independent of them; it requires only muscle, bone, and nerve, for the true exercise of its functions. We cannot lose our liberty, because we cannot cease to think; and ten millions of people are not easily annihilated. I am, my dear Poole,

Very truly yours,

H. DAVY.

While the Electro-chemical laws, developed in the last chapter, are fresh in the recollection of the reader, I shall proceed to the consideration of his second Bakerian lecture, which was read in November 1807; and in which he announces the discovery of the metallic bases of the fixed alkalies, -a discovery immediately arising from the application of Voltaic electricity, directed in accordance with those laws; thus having, as we have seen in the first instance, ascended from particular phenomena to general principles, he now descends from those principles to the discovery of new phenomena; a method of investigation by which he may be said to have applied to his inductions the severest tests of truth, and to have produced a chain of evidence without having a single link deficient.

Since the account given by Newton of his first discoveries in Optics, it may be questioned whether so happy and successful an instance of philosophical induction has ever been afforded as that by which Davy discovered the composition of the fixed alkalies. Had it been true, as was most unjustly insinuated at the time, that the discovery was accidentally effected by the

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high power of the apparatus placed at his disposal, his claims to our admiration would have assumed a very different character; in such a case, he might be said to have forced open the sanctuary of Nature by direct violence, instead of having discovered and touched the secret spring by which its portals were unclosed. The justice of these remarks will best appear in the examination of his memoir: the highest eulogy that can be conferred on its author will be a faithful and plain history of its contents.

It will be remembered that, in his preceding lecture of 1806, he had described a number of decompositions and chemical changes produced in substances of known composition, by the powers of electricity, and that in all such cases there invariably subsisted an attraction between oxygen and the positive pole, and between inflammable matter and the negative pole of the pile: thus, in the decomposition of water, its oxygen was transferred to the former, and its hydrogen to the latter. Furnished with such data, Davy proceeded to submit a fixed alkali to the most intense action of the Voltaic apparatus, well convinced that, should the electrical energy be adequate to effect its decomposition, the elements would be transferred, according to this general law, to their respective poles.

His first attempts were made on solutions of the alkalies, but, notwithstanding the intensity of the electric action, the water alone underwent decomposition, and oxygen and hydrogen were disengaged with the production of much heat, and violent effervescence. The presence of water thus appearing to prevent the desired decomposition, potash, in a state of igneous fusion, was in various ways submitted to experiment; when it was evident that combustible matter of some kind, burning with a vivid light, was given off at the negative wire. After numerous trials, during the progress of which the difficulties which successively arose were as immediately combated by ingenious manipulation, a small piece of potash sufficiently moistened, by a short exposure to the air, to give its surface a conducting power, was placed on an insulated disc of platina, connected with the negative side of the battery in a state of intense activity, and a platina wire communicating with the positive side, was at the same instant brought into contact within the upper surface of the alkali.— Mark what followed! - A series of phenomena, each of which the reader will readily understand as it is announced,- for it will be in strict accordance with the laws which Davy had previously established: the potash began to fuse at both its points of electrization; a violent effervescence commenced at the upper, or positive surface, while at the lower, or negative one, instead of any