BANKS, SIR JOSEPH, was a great con tributor to industry and science in the latter half of the last century. Besides his own voyages and travels, all the voyages of disco very which were made under the auspices of Government for the last thirty years of Sir Joseph Banks's life had either been suggested by him, or had received his approbation and support. In the affairs of the Board of Trade, of the Board of Agriculture, and of the Mint, he was constantly consulted, and he took a leading part in the management of the Royal Gardens at Kew. He was a distinguished promoter also of the interests of the Horticul tural Society founded in 1804. His influence was frequently directed to soften to men of science the inconveniences of the long war which followed the French Revolution ; to alleviate their sufferings in captivity ; or to procure the restoration of their papers and collections when taken by an enemy. Baron
Cuvier, in his Eloge ' upon SirJoseph Banks, mentions that unless than ten times collections addressed to the Jardin du Roi at Paris, and captured by the English, were restored, by his intercession, to their original destination. His purse was always open to promote the cause of science, and his library of natural history always accessible to those who desired to consult it. During the two-and-forty years in which he continued President of the Royal Society, he was indefatigable as an official trustee in the management of the British Museum ; to which institution, after innu merable gifts, he made a contingent bequest of his scientific library, together with his foreign correspondence,where both are now deposited.