[204] APPENDIX. 



" employed," as to justify myself in alluding to Mr. Swainson's " profes*- 

 sional pursuits," by evincing that his own immediate friends make no 

 scruple in treating him as an artist by profession, and that by his own 

 desire. 



" Dear Sir, London, Dec. 29. 1830. 



" Mr. Swainson, supposing that Captain King may be assisted by 

 government in publishing his Ornithological Discoveries, is desirous of being 

 employed to make the drawings, without reference to the text. If you can 

 assist him in this matter I shall feel obliged, and I am certain that no 

 English artist can do them greater justice. Yours truly, 



" John Richardson." 



"What ! you will here, Sir, probably exclaim, of what importance is all 

 this parade of Mr. Swainson's pretensions, or his professional labours, in 

 the eyes of the public ? Certainly, Sir, I will answer, not of the slightest. 

 But Mr. Swainson is accountable for the introduction of the frivolous 

 discussion. He volunteered to charge a distinguished public body with 

 illiberality ; and it is of importance that the true nature of such an im- 

 putation should be sifted out, and the true character of the impugner 

 exposed, even at the expense of much paltry detail. The very date of 

 the above letters is of consequence. It shows the disposition and cha- 

 racter of the man, who, on the 27th of December could authorise an 

 application for employment to individuals connected with a Society which, 

 at the very moment of his application (for this letter of the 10th of the 

 same month must then have been passing through the press), he was in 

 the very act of daring to traduce. Had not Mr. Swainson voluntarily 

 outraged the common courtesies of life, by this wanton attack upon a 

 Society which the general esprit de corps of scientific men would have 

 taught him to respect, no such exposure would have come to light. His 

 professional exertions would have been cheered, encouraged, and with 

 justice commended, by every man connected with his science. 



Ohe ! jam satis ! — Weary am 1, and weary must you. Sir, be, if you 

 have travelled so far in my company, over this dull and dreary road; 

 and yet there is still more toil before us. A word as to my profound igno- 

 rance of my own principles of science. 



16. " Here we have one party meanly betraying, or ignorantly misrepresenting, his master : — 

 .... He ' who adopts theories he does not understand ' is Mr. Vigors. He has proved this, in his 

 own words, in his published writings- I have convicted this person, moreover, of being pro- 

 foundly ignorant of the very essence of that quinary and circular system upon which he publicly 

 lectures." 



Here, Sir, at last is a question of some real importance ; the only point, 

 certainly, in the curious farrago of logic and science before us, that de- 

 serves the attention of the naturalist : of course, I cannot enter upon it in 

 this place; assertion is all that we have before us ; and I do not mean to 

 contend with a shadow. Mr. Swainson's views in science are published 

 elsewhere. As yet I have refrained from consulting them, being desirotis 

 of keeping all scientific matters apart from this frivolous discussion ; but 

 I hope shortly to have leisure to give his work that dispassionate attention 

 which will enable me to ascertain, and fairly review, its pretensions. At 

 present I claim a few words as to ipy imputed ignorance of Mr. MacLeay's 

 principles. 



Nothing, Sir, is more easy than for a writer to hazard an assertion, the 

 truth of which apparently can be ascertained only by an appeal to a distant 

 witness. It requires time to collect such testimony ; and the assertion, in 

 the interim, may obtain some credence, from the want of contradiction. 

 But it fortunately happens, in the present case, that there is no want of 

 evidence to disprove Mr. Swainson's assertion. 



The question before us, let it be remembered, is not, whether my views 



