After his return Mr. Banks passed his time principally in London, or at his paternal seat at Revesby, surrounded by men of letters, and by persons of the first rank and fortune; and dedicating his time and fortune to scientific pursuits. Sir John Pringle having retired from the office of President of the Royal Society in 1777, Mr. Banks was called to fill the vacant chair, when his ample fortune enabled him to commence a system by which his house became, through a long series of years, a scene of hospitality, to genius of every country, and of every rank in society. The close attention which the President now paid to the duties of his station, induced him to select a rural retirement nearer to London than his seat at Revesby; he therefore, in the year 1779, took a lease of the premises, which he afterwards purchased, at Spring Grove, in the parish of Heston, in Middlesex; and on the 29th of March in the same year, he married Dorothea, daughter and co-heiress of William Weston Hugeson, Esquire, of Provender, in the parish of Norton, county of Kent. In 1781, Mr. Banks was honored by his Sovereign with a baronetcy; as he was some years afterwards, by being created a Knight of the Bath, and sworn one of his Majesty’s Honorable Privy Counsel. Sir Joseph was re-elected to the Presidency of the Royal Society, for several years, with an unanimous feeling; but the jealousies of some members of splendid and commanding talents began to be developed. It was charged against him, that in the recommendation of candidates, he bowed rather to the pretensions of rank, than to the unobtrusive, but undoubted claims of eminent ability. This feeling so far extended itself, that in 1784, a dignitary of the church, distinguished for his mathematical learning, threatened a secession in the following terms:—“If other remedies fail, we can at least secede. When the hour of secession comes, the President will be left with his train of feeble amateurs, and that toy upon the table, the ghost of that society in which Philosophy once reigned, and Newton presided as her minister.” The very temper of this burst of eloquence is a proof of the causes of the schism. The pride of genius was opposed to the pride of rank, and the conflict was as obstinate as it was violent. The President maintained his position firmly, and he lived to behold that intimate union which ought ever to exist between the patrons and the votaries of learning.