458 Bibliographical Notices* 



property we feel ourselves at liberty to speak freely of it. Long 

 before the British Government gave assistance to works of this kind, 

 we were of opinion that it ought to have been granted : we had the 

 example before us of many continental works sumptuously published 

 at an expense which few private individuals could have defrayed, 

 while in this country our splendid examples were all completed 

 at the risk either of wealthy gentlemen, or by the enterprise of 

 publishers to whom a limited patronage had been secured, but 

 frequently resulting in inconvenience to both parties. The beautiful 

 volumes of the Northern Zoology were, we believe, the first to which 

 a Government grant was given in this country, and the work was 

 singularly fortunate in having men employed on it who were not 

 only naturalists of the highest standing, but were also artists, or 

 capable of judging of art. The more recent grants have been given 

 to the publications of Smith, Elder and Co., the publishers employed 

 to bring out the results of one or two of the later voyages, and they 

 are now continued with that for the work before us. The plan in 

 all these later works has been, we believe, to delegate the different 

 departments to men who have made them their particular study; 

 the publishers having the control of the expense and risk, and we 

 presume the benefit of the Government grant, and for this the public 

 receive the work at a price said to be cheaper than that at which it 

 otherwise could have been published. We have always considered 

 that the Government should maintain a greater control over these 

 works, or should give a portion at least of their grant in a sub- 

 scription for a certain number of copies \ the public are comparatively 

 little benefited by the small reduction of the price of the Numbers, 

 for we do not consider ten shillings for nine plates (one of them 

 uncoloured) and a very limited letter-press so great a bargain. The 

 present work will, when completed, cost at least six pounds sterling 

 unbound, and can only be expected to be found in the possession of 

 a few interested in the subjects, or in one or two of our principal 

 libraries ; while by the Government giving their grant in the form of 

 a subscription, and sending their copies to provincial libraries whose 

 funds would not allow them to devote so much to one work in a single 

 branch of science, the extension of a taste for natural history would 

 be spread, the knowledge of it diffused, and the public would at the 

 same time receive some value for their grant. There are many pub- 

 lishers both in England and in Scotland who would at once take the 

 risk, and bring out these works in the first style of art, were the sale 

 of one hundred or one hundred and fifty copies guaranteed to them 

 by Government*. 



The voyage of the Sulphur embraced a range so extensive, that 

 many interesting objects might be expected to have been dis- 

 covered ; accordingly in the first Number, devoted to Mammalia, and 

 under the direction of J. E. Gray, Esq., we have figures of Brachy- 



* We do not know the amount of the grant for the present work, but to 

 the former publications of Smith, Elder and Co., we believe the liberal sum 

 of 3000/. was given. A subscription for 150 copies of the present work 

 would not exceed the amount of a proportional grant. 



