Dr. Barton's request for permission to withdraw it (Eulogium) to be enlarged and published separately was referred for consideration to the next meeting.
The request was granted at the next meeting, but nowhere among Barton's literary remains was the precious document to be found. Lost very probably—when it might have revealed so much.
Priestley's death was deeply mourned throughout the land. The public prints brought full and elaborate accounts of his life, and touching allusions to the fullness of his brilliant career. Such expressions as these were heard,—
As a metaphysician he stands foremost among those who have attempted the investigation of its abstruse controversies.
As a politician he assiduously and successfully
laboured to extend and illustrate those general principles of civil liberty which are happily the foundation of the Constitution of his adopted Country,—
His profound attention to the belles-lettres, and to the other departments of general literature, has been successfully exemplified among his other writings, by his lectures on oratory and criticism, and on general history and policy,—
Of the most important and fashionable study of Pneumatic Chemistry he may fairly be said to be the father.
He was a man of restless activity, but he uniformly directed that activity to what seemed to him the public good, seeking neither emolument nor honour from men. Dr. Priestley was possessed of great ardour and vivacity of intellect.... His integrity was unimpeachable; and even malice itself could not fix a stain on his private character.
And what a splendid tribute is contained in the following passages from Cuvier: