Leibnitz complained of Keill's proceeding to the Royal Society of London, which declined giving judgment, but appointed a commission of its members to draw up a full and detailed report of all the communications which had passed between Newton and Leibnitz, or their friends, on subjects connected with the new analysis, from the time of Collins and Oldenburgh to the date of Keill's letter to Sir Hans Sloane in 1711, the same that was now complained of. This report forms what is called the Commercium Epistolicum ; it was published by order of the Royal Society the year following, and contains an account of the facts, which, though in the main fair and just, does not give that impression of the impartiality of the reporters which the circum stances so imperiously demanded. Leibnitz complained of this publication ; anil al leged, that though nothing might be inserted that was not contained in the original letters, yet certain passages were suppressed which were favourable to his pretensions. He threatened an answer, which, however, never appeared. Some notes were added to the Commercium, which contain a good deal of asperity and unsupported insinua tion ; the Recen-sio, or review of it, inserted in the Philosophical Transactions for 1715, though written with ability, is still more liable to the same censure.
was not named, but was generally understood to be John Bernoulli, of which, indeed, the terms in which Leibnitz speaks of the judgment leaves no room to doubt. Ber noulli was without question well acquainted with the subject in dispute ; he was a perfect master of the calculus ; he had been one of the great instruments of its ad vancement, and, except impartiality, possessed every requisite for a judge. Without offence it might be said, that he could scarcely be accounted impartial. He had been a party in all that had happened ;—warmly attached as he was to the one side, and greatly exasperated against the other, his temper had been more frequently ruffled, , and his passions or prejudices more violently excited, than those of any other indi ' vidnal. With all his abilities, therefore, be was not likely to prove the fairest and most candid judge, in a cause that might almost be considered as his own. His sentence, how ever, is pronounced in calm and temperate language, and amounts to this, That there is no reason to believe, that the jiuxionary calculus was invented before the differential.