User:Stephen Pumfrey/sandbox

Presidency of the Royal Society
Davy became president in the election of 30th November, 1820. Although he was unopposed, other candidates had received initial backing. These candidates embodied the factional difficulties that beset Davy's presidency and which eventually defeated him. The Society was in transition from a club for interested gentlemen, with connection to the political and social elite, to an academy of sciences which were becoming specialised. The previous president, Joseph Banks, had held the post for xx years and had presided autocratically over what Miller calls the "Banksian Learned Empire". Banks had selected Davies Gilbert to succeed him and preserve the status quo, but he declined to stand. Fellows who thought royal patronage was important proposed Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, who also withdrew as did the Whig Duke of Somerset. Davy was the outstanding scientist but some fellows did not approve of his popularising work at the Royal Institution. The strongest alternative had been William Hyde Wollaston, who was supported by the "Cambridge Network" of outstanding mathematicians such as Charles Babbage and John Herschel in their bid to block Davy. They were aware that Davy supported some modernisation, but feared that he would not sufficiently encourage aspiring young mathematicians, astronomers and geologists, who were beginning to form specialist societies. In his early years Davy was optimistic about reconciling the reformers and the Banksians. In his first speech as president Davy declared: I truyst that, with these new socieites, we shall always preserve the most amicable relations... I am sure there is no desire in [the Royal Society] to exert anything like patriarchal authority in relation to these institutions..." Davy sepnt much time juggling the factions but, as his reputation declined in the light of failures such as research into copper-bottomed ships, he lost popularity and authority. This was compounded by a number of political errors. In 1825 his promotion of a new Zoological Society favoured the landed gentry and alienated expert zoologists. He offended the mathematicians and reformers by failing to ensure that Charles Babbage received one of the new Royal Medals (a project of his) or a secretaryship of thee Society in 1826. In November 1826 the mathematician Edward Ryan recorded that: The Society, every member almost... are in the greatest rage at the President's proceedings and nothing is now talked of but removing him." In November 1826 he was again re-elected unopposed, but he was visibly unwell, and in January 1827 set off to Italy for his health. As the November 1827 election loomed, it was clear that he would not stand.