Mr. GREY thought £10,000 would be no more than an indemnity for expenses. He hoped the House would vote for £20,000. Mr. BANKS said there was no question as to the utility of the discovery. If he felt more niggardly than other members, it was because his paramount duty consisted in guarding the public purse. That purse was a large one, but it was not to be dipped into at pleasure. The strength of the country lay in economy and sound finance. He did not see that a case had been made out for so large a sum as £10,000. The discovery itself might be trusted to pay its author. He always looked on a Report of a Committee with jealousy, for it was controlled by the friends of the Petitioner, and there was no one with sufficient motive to provide the correctives required in the public interest. Mr. ADDINGTON, Chancellor of the Exchequer, held that the value of the discovery was without example, and beyond calculation. So much, indeed, was not contested. The Petitioner had received the highest reward in the approbation, the unanimous approbation of the House; an approbation richly deserved, since it was the result of _the greatest discovery since the creation of man_. Whatever money the House might see fit to vote on some future occasion, his present duty was to recommend the smaller sum of £10,000. In doing so, he admitted, he surrendered his private inclination to his sense of public duty. He had, however, the satisfaction in knowing that this discussion had conferred on Dr. Jenner a reward that would endure for ever, whilst the comfort of his family would be amply ensured in the extension of practice that would follow the approbation of the House. The question was then put that the words £10,000 do stand part of the resolution; when the Committee divided--Ayes 59, Noes 56, Majority 3. The discussion in the House of Commons shows how wide was the general craze. Facts and figures were evolved at discretion and repeated indiscriminately. To rave about Jenner, the saviour from smallpox, was the mode. It was as if all had consented to go mad together. Mr. Dunning, a surgeon, otherwise rational, broke into prophetic fury-- With pride, with just and national pride, we boast a Newton and a Harvey; posterity will boast a Jenner![126] Considering the value set on “the great discovery,” the award of £10,000 was not excessive. In the _Medical Journal_ it stands recorded-- We have never witnessed a more unanimous and general disappointment than that which has been expressed, not only by the profession, but by the public at large, at the smallness of the remuneration.[127] On the other hand, it is to be remembered that the times were dark and hard, cruelly hard, through war and scanty harvests; the quartern loaf selling at 1s. 11d., a significant index of the people’s misery. FOOTNOTES: [126] _Medical Journal_, January, 1802. [127] _Ib._ July, 1802. CHAPTER XI. PEARSON’S _EXAMINATION_.[128]