I am sorry that I have said so much about myself, but your long letter called for something. I wish I could say anything satisfactory on the subject of Captain Parry and his officers.[63] I have every reason to believe Lord Melville will do all he can on the occasion; no recommendation will be wanting from the Royal Society that can be given; but the Admiralty is bound by certain general rules, and will not do more in this instance than they would do in the case of a brilliant combat; but these brave and scientific navigators will be rewarded by a more durable species of glory. Lady Davy joins me in kind remembrances. I am, my dear Poole, sincerely yours, H. DAVY. [63] Mr. Poole informs me, that he "had been anxious to interest him, as President of the Royal Society, in favour of those brave and scientific navigators, particularly Lieutenant, now Captain, Liddon, who commanded the Griper, in Captain Parry's first voyage." It was a question anxiously discussed by the friends of Davy, how far his elevation to the chair of the Royal Society was calculated to advance the cause of science, or to increase the lustre of his own fame. It will be readily perceived that this is a question perplexed by various conflicting interests, for it not only involves considerations relating to the character of the person, but to that also of the constitution and objects of the Society over which he is called upon to preside. It is still doubtful whether the Royal Society, in the present advanced state of science, can derive advantage from possessing in its President, a philosopher actively engaged in any one branch of experimental enquiry. Sir Humphry Davy, in his first address from the chair, took occasion to observe, that "in the early periods of the establishment, when apparatus was procured with difficulty, when the greatest philosophers were obliged to labour with their own hands to frame their instruments, it was found expedient to keep in the rooms of the Society a collection of all such machines as were likely to be useful in the progress of experimental knowledge; and curators and operators were employed, by whom many capital experiments were made under the eyes of the Society.[64] But since the improvement of the mechanical and chemical arts has afforded greater facilities as to the means of carrying on experimental research, the transactions of the Fellows, recorded by the Society, have, with some few exceptions, been performed in their own laboratories, and at their own expense."