[200] APPENDIX. 



illiberality in debarring men of science from the use of the Zoological 

 .Society's Museum, by mentioning that the greater part of that Museum 

 had been my private property, and that, if I had been tenacious in securing 

 its advantages to myself, I had the full power of so doing. He does not 

 deny this : but he rejoins, that the collection is not w^orth being consulted. 

 ^ 12. [Note.] " This collection, so much vaunted," 



Where has it been vaunted ? 



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

 insects, and shells in my own collection." 



And yet this is the very collection which he solicited permission to con- 

 sult ; by which, even under the peculiar circumstances of his defalcation to 

 the Society, he had the indelicacy to endeavour to profit ; and for their 

 alleged refusal to open which to his unrestrained investigation, he had the 

 temerity to accuse the Society of illiberality ! By such strange lapses of 

 memory, by such palpable and unaccountable contradictions, does this 

 writer refute his own assertions. His own breath is sufficient to level the 

 frail erections of his malice. 



But he has another subterfuge in reserve. The Secretary, he fears, may 

 perhaps be thought to have shown some liberality in transferring his col- 

 lections to the Institution to which he was attached ; but then he has 

 bartered that gift for the patronage which his office confers upon him. 



13. [Note.] " There is a vast deal of patronage, / hear, in a small way, in the gift of the 

 Secretary." 



A man of honourable feeling, if he had heard such reports, would have 

 hesitated, following the dictates of his own bosom, to have given credit to 

 them : but, before he had ventured to whisper them to the world, he would 

 have enquired from authentic sources into their truth. Had Mr. Swainson 

 acted this honourable part, he would have heard^ that in the course of the 

 six years during which I have held the confidential office of Secretary, I 

 have made one appointment, — an appointment, made at the very outset 

 of the Institution, at the express request of Sir H. Davy and Sir S. Raffles, — 

 the letter of the former to the latter on the subject is now lying before me, 

 — and one which naturally fell to my nomination, that of assistant to myself 

 as Secretary. He would, moreover, have heardy that, from that hour to 

 the present, although hundreds of persons have been employed in our 

 "establishment, and tens of thousands of pounds have been expended in the 

 advancement of its objects, I have not used the influence which my office 

 may be supposed to have conferred upon me, in recommending a single 

 individual to any place of trust or emolument, to whom I can in anywise 

 directly or indirectly be supposed to be the patron. I boast not of this 

 fact ; nor am I singular in being swayed by this principle. Mr. Swainson 

 may learn, if he enquires, that there have been other members of our 

 Council, of greater authority and still higher pretension to influence than I 

 could ever advance, who have laid down to themselves on entering office 

 the same disinterested principle, and have imiformly acted according to its 

 dictates. Let Mr. Swainson make these enquiries, and he will probably have 

 •a higher opinion of human nature than he seems at present disposed to form 

 of it. 



I pass over the next paragraph, merely because I really cannot compre- 

 hend the writer's drift. He tells us that he has " divested this subject 

 of all personal considerations," and yet he enters at the very next page 

 upon " personal reflections !" He tells us again "he will return to it (this 

 subject) ere long ; " and yet a short time afterwards he informs us, that 

 " nothing shall now tempt him to another reply !" In speaking of his dis- 

 carding " all personal considerations," he gives the following motives for so 

 doing : — "/o/* a large body of liberal-minded gentlemen shall not be brought 



