It is disagreeable to be thus obliged to use artillery for the destruction of bats and owls; but it was necessary that something should be done. The Messrs. ---- have for a long time been endeavouring to destroy my peace of mind; my offence being that of conferring a benefit. The only persons I knew in Newcastle, before I gave the Safety-lamp to the Coal-owners, were Dr. Headlam and Mr. Bigge, so that friends I had none; and the few persons with whom I had a slight acquaintance, and who were civil to me before I discovered the Safety-lamp, became my enemies. It requires a deep metaphysician to explain this--Can it be that I did not make them the medium of communication to the colliers?--But I quit a subject to which I have no desire to return, and shall only recollect that day when your eloquence touched my feelings more than it flattered my self-love. Believe me, &c. &c. H. Davy. The following are the Resolutions of a Meeting adverted to in the preceding letter, and which was held "for considering the Facts relating to the Discovery of the Lamp of Safety." Soho Square, Nov. 20, 1817. "An advertisement having been inserted in the Newcastle Courant, of Saturday, November 7, 1817, purporting to contain the Resolutions of 'A Meeting held for the purpose of remunerating Mr. George Stephenson, for the valuable service he has rendered mankind by the invention of his Safety-lamp, which is calculated for the preservation of human life in situations of the greatest danger,' "We have considered the evidence produced in various publications by Mr. Stephenson and his friends, in support of his claims; and having examined his lamps, and enquired into their effects in explosive mixtures, are clearly of opinion-- "First,--That Mr. George Stephenson _is not_ the author of the discovery of the fact, that an explosion of inflammable gas will not pass through tubes and apertures of small dimensions. "Secondly,--That Mr. George Stephenson _was not_ the first to apply that principle to the construction of a Safety-lamp, none of the lamps which he made in the year 1815 having been safe, and there being no evidence even of their having been made upon that principle. "Thirdly,--That Sir Humphry Davy not only discovered, independently of all others, and without any knowledge of the unpublished experiments of the late Mr. Tennant on Flame, the principle of the non-communication of explosions through small apertures, but that he has also the sole merit of having first applied it to the very important purpose of a Safety-lamp, which has evidently been imitated in the latest lamps of Mr. George Stephenson. (Signed) "JOSEPH BANKS, P.R.S. "WILLIAM THOMAS BRANDE, "CHARLES HATCHETT, "WILLIAM HYDE WOLLASTON."