Towards the end of February Mr. Harris, the Librarian and Superintendent of the House, reported to the managers ‘that, hearing a great noise one evening in the lecture room, he went to see the cause of it. He found Mr. Payne and Mr. Newman at high words, and Mr. Newman complained of having been struck by Payne for representing to him his neglect of duty in being absent when he should have attended on Mr. Brande.’ The managers immediately resolved that Mr. Payne should be dismissed from the Royal Institution, and that a gratuity of 10_l._ should be paid him in consideration of his long services. He had come as a boy to the Institution before November 1803. At the following meeting (March 1) Sir Humphry Davy ‘had the honour to inform the managers that he had found Michael Faraday,’ and the managers engaged him and resolved ‘that the clerk furnish him with a copy of the order relating to his duties accordingly.’ In March 1813 the chairman of the Committee of Chemistry having through Sir H. Davy expressed a desire that an open committee of chemistry should be held in the ensuing week, the managers resolved that ‘a committee of chemistry, open to all members and gentlemen personally introduced by members, should be held in the theatre of the Institution on Wednesday, March 31, at three o’clock, when the Professor of Chemistry will demonstrate a new series of facts on the fluoric principle’ (fluorine). At the general meeting of members on April 5 Sir Humphry Davy begged leave to resign his situation of Professor of Chemistry. ‘He by no means wished to give up his connection with the Royal Institution, as he should ever be happy to communicate his researches in the first instance to the Institution in the manner he did in the presence of the members last Wednesday, and to do all in his power to promote the interest and success of this Institution.’ Sir H. Davy having retired, Earl Spencer moved ‘that the thanks of this meeting be returned to Sir Humphry Davy for the inestimable services rendered by him to the Royal Institution.’ The motion was seconded by the Earl of Darnley and agreed to unanimously. Earl Spencer further moved ‘that, in order more strongly to mark the high sense of this meeting of the merits of Sir Humphry Davy, he be elected Honorary Professor of Chemistry.’ The Earl of Winchester, the President of the Royal Institution, was requested to sign these resolutions and to convey them to Sir Humphry Davy, and Mr. Brande was elected to the professorship of chemistry. At the end of June the two rooms that had been occupied by Sir Humphry Davy were ordered to be prepared for Mr. Brande. A few months later he was appointed Superintendent of the House, and was allowed to transfer his chemical class of students of medicine to the laboratory.