Conflicting opinions, respecting the management of the Royal Institution, most unfortunately also arose, and the President of the Royal Society, presuming upon his former alliance with that establishment, and upon the high obligations conferred upon it by the splendid discoveries he had achieved within its walls, was encouraged to exercise an authority which provoked an angry dissatisfaction;--schisms arose, and the party-spirit thus kindled in Albemarle Street soon spread to Somerset House.--But let us turn to the brighter part of the picture. In the discharge of the more important duties of his office, the Society received the full benefit of his talents and his virtues. At its meetings, he was constant in attendance, and dignified in his conduct and deportment; in its councils, he was firm in his resolves, correct in his judgments, zealous in his plans,[66] and impartial in his decisions. It has been said that he unduly favoured the pursuits of chemistry, to the injury and depression of the other branches of science: this is not the fact, as a reference to the Philosophical Transactions will amply testify; and the awards of the Copley medals will moreover show, that he alike extended the animating influence of his patronage to every part of natural philosophy. I am authorised by Sir James South to state, that during his negotiations with the Government, for the purpose of securing to the British Nation the unalienable use of his splendid instruments, by the erection of a permanent observatory, Sir Humphry Davy was indefatigable in his exertions to accomplish so important an object; and that on one occasion, in the midst of severe illness, he travelled at no inconsiderable risk to London, from the distant seat of his friend Mr. Knight, to advocate a cause so essential, in his judgment, to the interests of Astronomy. [66] It was well known to his friends that, had his health not declined, he would have carried into effect a reform which he had long contemplated, and by which the Royal Society would have become, at once, more dignified and more useful. * * * * * In the Autumn of 1821, Davy visited his mother and relatives at Penzance; upon which occasion he received from the inhabitants of the town, and from the gentlemen resident in its neighbourhood, a flattering testimony of respect, which made a deep and lasting impression upon his heart. At a General Meeting, summoned for the purpose of taking into consideration some mode by which his fellow-townsmen might express their sense of his transcendent talents, and of the lustre which his genius had cast upon the place of his nativity:--It was unanimously RESOLVED-- "That a public dinner be given to Sir Humphry Davy, and that the Mayor be desired to wait upon him forthwith, in order to communicate the Resolution, and respectfully to request that he would appoint the day, on which it would be agreeable to him to meet their wishes."