Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society for upwards of forty years, was born in Argyle Street, London. He was the eldest son of Mr. W. Banks, a gentleman of considerable landed property, whose family was originally of Swedish extraction, although it had been settled in England for several generations. The early life of Joseph Banks was passed principally at Revesby Hall, his father's seat in Lincolnshire, and his education was for several years entrusted to a private tutor; in his ninth year he was sent to Harrow and four years after to Eton, from whence he proceeded to Christ's College, Oxford. During his residence at college, he made considerable progress in classical knowledge, but evinced at the same time a decided predilection for the study of natural history. Botany in particular was his favourite occupation, and one to which his leisure hours were devoted with enthusiastic ardour and perseverance. An anecdote is told of Mr. Banks being on one occasion so intent on exploring ditches and secluded spots, in search of rare plants, as to have excited the suspicions of some countrymen, who, conceiving that he could have no innocent design in acting thus, seized the young naturalist, when he had fallen asleep exhausted with fatigue, and brought him as a suspected thief before a neighbouring magistrate. After a strict investigation he was soon liberated, but the incident occasioned much amusement in the neighbourhood. In the year 1761 Mr. Banks lost his father, and in 1764, on coming of age, was put in possession of his valuable estates in Lincolnshire. Mrs. Banks, soon after the death of her husband, removed with her family from Lincolnshire to Chelsea, as a spot likely to afford her son Joseph peculiar advantages in the study of botany, from the numerous gardens in the vicinity devoted to the culture of rare and curious plants of every description. And now it was that the great merit of Mr. Banks shone forth. With all the incitements which his age, his figure, and his station naturally presented to leading a life of idleness, and with a fortune which placed the more vulgar gratifications of sense or of ordinary ambition amply within his reach, he steadily devoted himself to scientific pursuits, and only lived for the studies of a naturalist. He remained out of Parliament, went little into any society but that of learned men, while his relaxation was confined to exercise and to angling, of which he was so fond, that he would devote days and even nights to it. Whilst living at Chelsea, Mr. Banks formed the acquaintance of Lord Sandwich, afterwards first Lord of the Admiralty, who as it happened had the same taste, and to the friendship of whom he was in after life indebted for essential aid in the furtherance of his numerous projects for the advancement of scientific knowledge. Soon after attaining his 21st year, Mr. Banks undertook a voyage to Newfoundland and the Labrador coast, for the purpose of exploring the