ence appeared to be cherished at Oxford as much as at the sister University, observed, "The character of this University has been misrepresented; it has at all times given, and yet continues to give, great men to the nation. Had Oxford never existed, English history would not have been what it now is, and the English character would, perhaps, have been materially different. This, to those who value the moral power of this country, is a sufficient answer to the harsh assertions which have been made, in relation to its supposed monastic habits, by men who, perhaps, had an interest in debasing the English character to their own conceptions of the dignity of man. To be sure, the lectures you have heard from my nephew this day, on the modern science of geology, are at so great a distance from the ancient scholastic manners of the University, that they have apparently something revolutionary in their character; and it is true, that this science is hardly out of its cradle, and here at Oxford, has been exclusively rocked and nursed by Dr. Buckland, who seems to have been brought forward himself, at the right point of time, by nature and education. Yet Oxford has never, at the most distant periods, been insensible to the progress of intellectual improvement, although she has been slow to convince herself that every innovation was an improvement. When Blackstone prepared to deli

Ꮓ

ver his Law Lectures, he too was considered an innovator, and was made to feel, in various ways, the influence of established opinions.' &c.-North American Review for April, 1831, art. ix., p. 472.

NOTE (F.) P. 220.

'ABOUT the year 1645,' says Dr. John Wallis, 'while I lived in London, (at a time when, by our civil wars, Academical Studies were much interrupted in both our universities,) besides the conversation of divers eminent Divines, as to matters theological, I had the opportunity of being acquainted with divers worthy persons, inquisitive into Natural Philosophy, and other parts of humane learning, and particularly of what hath been called the New Philosophy or Experimental Philosophy.

'We did by agreement, divers of us, meet weekly in London on a certain day, to treat and discourse of such affairs. Of which number were Dr. John Wilkins, (afterwards Bishop of Chester,) Dr. Jonathan Goddard, Dr. George Ent, Dr. Glisson, Dr. Merret, (Doctors in Physic,) Mr. Samuel Foster, then Professor of Astro

nomy at Gresham College, Mr. Theodore Hank, (n German of the Palatinate, and then resident in London, who, I think, gave the first occasion, and first suggested those meetings,) and many others.

'These meetings we held sometimes at Dr. Goddard's lodgings in Wood Street, (or some convenient place near,) on occasion of his keeping an Operator in his house, for grinding glasses for telescopes and microscopes; and sometimes at a convenient place in Cheapside;* sometimes at Gresham College, or some place near adjoyning. Our business was (precluding matters of theology and state affairs,) to discourse and consider of Philosophical Enquiries, and such as related thereunto; as Physick, Anatomy, Geometry, Astronomy, Navigation, Staticks, Magneticks, Chymicks, Mechanicks, and Natural Experiments, with the state of these studies, as then cultivated at home and abroad. there discoursed of the circulation of the blood, the valves in the veins, the Vena Lactea, the Lymphatick Vessels, the Copernican Hypothesis, the nature of Comets and New Stars, the Satellites of Jupiter, the Oval Shape (as it then appeared,) of Saturn, the Spots in the Sun, and its turning on its own axis, the Inequalities

We

The 'convenient place' to which Dr. Wallis refers, was the Bull-head tavern in Cheapside.-See Aubrey, vol. 2, p. 583.

and Selenography of the Moon, the several phases of Venus and Mercury, the improvement of Telescopes, and grinding of glasses for that purpose, the weight of air, the possibility or impossibility of vacuities, and nature's abhorrence thereof, the Torricellian experiment in quicksilver, the descent of heavy bodies, and the degrees of acceleration therein; and divers other things of like nature. Some of which were then but new discoveries, and others not so generally known and imbraced, as now they are, with other things appertaining to what hath been called The New Philosophy, which, from the times of Galileo at Florence, and sir Francis Bacon, (lord Verulam,) in England, hath been much cultivated in Italy, France, Germany, and other parts abroad, as well as with us in England.

'About the year 1648, 1649, some of our company being removed to Oxford, (first Dr. Wilkins, then I, and soon after Dr. Goddard,) our company divided. Those in London continued to meet there as before, (and we with them, when we had occasion to be there,) and those of us at Oxford, with Dr. Ward, (since Bp. of Salisbury,) Dr. Ralph Bathurst, (now President of Trinity College, in Oxford,) Dr. Petty, (since sir William Petty,) Dr. Willis, (then an eminent Physician in Oxford,) and divers others, continued such meetings in Oxford; and brought those studies into fashion there;

1

meeting first at Dr. Petty's Lodgings (in an Apothecarie's house,) because of the convenience of inspecting Drugs and the like, as there was occasion; and after his remove to Ireland, (tho' not se constantly,) at the Lodgings of Dr. Wilkins, then Warden of Wadham Coll. ; and after his removal to Trinity College, in Cambridge, at the Lodgings of the Honourable Mr. Robert Boyle, then resident for divers years in Oxford. Those meetings in London continued, and (after the King's return in 1660,) were increased with the accession of divers worthy and honorable persons; and were afterwards incorporated by the name of the Royal Society, &c., and so continued to this day.'-From Dr. John Wallis's Account of some Passages of his own Life, printed in the App. No. xi. to Preface to Hearne's edition of Peter Langtoft's Chronicle.

NOTE (G.) p. 267.

To the Right Honourable the Lord's Spiritual and Temporal, in the High Court of Parliament assembled:

"The Confession and humble Submission of me, the

Lord Chancellor.

UPON advised consideration of the charge, descending