APPENDIX. No. I. CONGRATULATIONS ON SIR JOHN SINCLAIR'S APPOINTMENT TO BE A MEMBer of the PRIVY COUNCIL, EXPLANATORY OF THE FEELINGS OF THE PUBLIC UPON THAT OCCASION. 1.-Extract of a Letter from Davies Gilbert, Esq. M. P. afterwards President of the Royal Society, dated 3d September 1810. "In consequence of what has appeared in the papers, I write, not so much for the purpose of congratulating yourself, as of offering my congratulations to the public, on the occasion of a signal and appropriate honour being conferred on an individual, who has so long, so diligently, so successfully, and so usefully employed himself in the promotion of science, the diffusion of knowledge, and the service of mankind, as well as of his own particular country." 2.-Extract of a Letter from George Dempster, Esq. of Dunnichen, near Forfar, in North Britain, dated 15th September 1810. "I have received yours, with the interesting particulars of your admission as a Privy Councillor. It is one of the fairest feathers royalty has to bestow. It costs the Crown nothing. It confers on the subject pure refined honour, unalloyed with any metallic dross. On this occasion, it is a pure mirror, and reflects back to the donor almost every ray that has fallen upon it. I do not know how the plough will bear being raised from its clods to the skies." 3.Extract of a Letter from William Innes, Esq. of Sandside. "1 received your kind note of intimation, and I congratulate you on his Majesty's mark of favour. I think there can be but little doubt of its being the forerunner of something more." 4.-Extract of a Letter from Robert Brown, Esq. of Markle, in East Lothian. "Permit me to offer my congratulations on having taken your seat at the Council Board, and to express my earnest wishes, that all his Majesty's councillors were animated with the like desire to pro mote the real welfare of the country, as, to my certain knowledge, has constantly regulated your public conduct." 5.-Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Mr Mackay, Minister of Reay, in Caithness, dated Reay, September 18. 1810. "I can truly say, that few can feel more joy at this dignified mark of royal approbation than I do. You will have the kindness to forgive the freedom of indulging myself in the pleasure of congratulating you on the present occasion. I flatter myself that this step is a prelude to a more substantial and lasting one." 6.-Extract of a Letter from Dr Adam Smith. "I heartily congratulate you upon your late acquisition of title and hope I may still live to see you arrive at still higher honours." 7.-Extract of a Letter from William Wilberforce, Esq. M. P. dated Battel, October 2. 1810. "It gave me real pleasure to hear that you were made a Privy Councillor. It is an honour which you have earned most honourably, by services, not to any party, but to your country." 8.-Extract of a Letter from the Duke of Northumberland, dated Alnwick Castle, 19th September 1810. "Permit me to take this opportunity of congratulating you on the additional honour his Majesty has been pleased to confer on you, by calling you to a seat in the Privy Council, and to assure you of the satisfaction with which I heard of that event." 9.-Extract of a Letter from Arthur Young, Esq. "Your elevation to a seat in the Privy Council must be highly gratifying to all your agricultural friends; and I never think of the number and extent of your pursuits, and the extraordinary vigour with which you push them, but I am disposed to wish, that the greatest offices of the state were conducted with the same energy and exertion." 10.-Extract of a Letter from Sir Humphry Davy, Bart. dated September 9. 1810. "I congratulate you very sincerely on your being elected of the Privy Council. It would be a glorious circumstance for our age, if this were to be the prelude to an uniform patronage of the public objects of science and useful art, on which the glory and prosperity of the country must ultimately depend." |