171 Tteiilij to Mr. Vigors. %^^ 



Subsequently, for the advantage of Dr. Richardson's work, I 

 asked permission to use their museum : having previously, 

 by the way, presented to it my collection of fish. Permission 

 was granted, but with this extraordinary condition, that 

 whatever I wished to know was to be learned " at the dis- 

 cretion of the secretary : " in other words, I was prohibited 

 the free use of my own eyes and my own judgment; and was 

 to solicit those of another, incompetent to understand, much 

 less to throw light upon, my enquiries. Such was the " liberal 

 assistance placed within my reach," such the " unprecedented 

 generosity and forbearance " experienced. I went, however, 

 to Bruton Street, accompanied by my friend, Mr. Audubon. 

 Mr. Blanchard, the brother-in-law of Mr. Vigors*, very 

 civilly opened the cases, and I was pencilling some notes 

 upon a well-known bird ( Jurdus orientalis Gm.\ when Mr. 

 Bennett, with evident reluctance, interfered. He stated that, 

 as Mr. Vigors was absent, I could not, agreeably to his ex- 

 press orders, proceed with my notes ; the species I was exa- 

 mining not being an arctic bird, f Mr. Audubon and myself 

 were both astonished looked at each other, and soon walked 

 out of the place. In this way has been manifested " that 

 spirit of disinterestedness and liberality," which, as Mr. Vi- 

 gors says, " renders him a marked man." \ 



Having now divested this subject of all personal consider- 

 ations (for a large body of liberal-minded gentlemen shall 

 not be brought into disrepute and contempt by the petty jea- 

 lousies of a few " monopolisers of petty power "), I shall 

 have the " temerity " to return to it ere long. I shall mix 

 up no scientific question in this letter. Those who choose to 

 know more of Colaptes mexicanus than they have yet been 

 told, may consult North. Zoology, vol, ii. p. 315. I have there, 

 long ago, spoken of this blunder as Mr. Vigors wishes, and 

 in that spirit which he should have shown towards M. Lesson. 



Here I would fain pause ; and if the personal reflections 

 upon me had been less gross, or had come from one less 

 known, I should have done so. But I must throw aside false 

 delicacy, and proceed. 



* There is a vast deal of patronage, I hear, in a small way, in the gift of 

 the secretary. 



f I accordingly applied, a second time, for " unrestrained " permission, 

 and was then officially refused. 



:j: So long as the secretary is thus able to debar scientific men from the 

 free use of the Society's museum, he has, of course, exclusive control 

 over his former collection. This collection, so much vaunted, T have often 

 seen. I may safely say, it is decidedly inferior to the duplicate series of 

 birds, insects, and shells in my own museum. It is certainly the dearest 

 shilling exhibition in London. Who are the " money-changers ? " 



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