![H.L.Z. [John Hill], A dissertation on Royal Societies. In three letters from A Nobleman on his Travels, to a Person of Distinction in Sclavonia. Containing An Account of an Assembly of a Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, A Description of a Meeting of a Royal Society in London, and a Coffee-House Conversation. With explanatory notes (London, John Doughty, 1750), 48pp. BL: 1508/1645. ESTCT066572.](https://images.tandf.co.uk/common/jackets/crclarge/978131509/9781315094618.jpg "H.L.Z. [John Hill], A dissertation on Royal Societies. In three letters from A Nobleman on his Travels, to a Person of Distinction in Sclavonia. Containing An Account of an Assembly of a Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, A Description of a Meeting of a Royal Society in London, and a Coffee-House Conversation. With explanatory notes (London, John Doughty, 1750), 48pp. BL: 1508/1645. ESTCT066572.")
ABSTRACT
John Hill’s savage satire on abuses of learning at the Royal Society of London, including an account of their unofficial socialising at Rawthmell’s Coffee-house in Covent Garden. The satire was published pseudonymously under the acronym ‘H.L.Z.’, pretending to be written by a noble Sclavonian (Serbian) virtuoso, comparing the order and seriousness of the meetings and research of the French Académie Royale des Sciences with the chaotic boorishness and indolence of the fellows of the Royal Society of London. Hill’s satire was personal and damaging, aimed at specific members of the Royal Society’s council, and was motivated by personal spite following their rejection of his proposed election. Nonetheless, his observations on shortcomings in the Royal Society’s procedures were searching and accurate, and led within a few years to some significant reforms.
