S68 Analytical Notices of Books, 



this department of science was consequently left to the medical 

 officers of the two corvettes. Of the duty thus gratuitously under- 

 taken by them they have well acquitted themselves, and they are 

 therefore entitled to our most cordial thanks ; but these thanks 

 are not equally due to their superiors. If the fact be, as M, 

 Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire has stated in his report on their labours, 

 that " in the French monarchy every thing ought to be done, and 

 is done, by the king, and for the king," we almost doubt whether 

 our zoologists have not been guilty of leze-majeste by interfering 

 with the prerogative of their royal master, in performing more than 

 was set down for them. That he has virtually pardoned them for 

 this offence of commission, may be inferred from his having 

 adopted the results of their labours, and having given them to 

 the public, as part of the official narrative : but he has himself 

 to answer to the scientific public, whom he courts, for his own sin 

 of omission, which we sincerely hope will not be repeated in this 

 kind, either by him or by any other government. To the trifling 

 expense, as compared with the extensive information to be ac- 

 quired by attaching a competent naturalist to every expedition of 

 discovery or of survey, no objection would we are confident be 

 oifered by the most economical of our own purse-holders. Were this 

 the proper place for such an appeal, we would strenuously urge 

 the subject on the attention of the British government, and 

 fervently entreat them to embrace every opportunity of extend- 

 ing our knowledge of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and 

 thereby probably increasing our domestic comforts and our na- 

 tional resources ; but we are here precluded from doing so, and 

 must return to the more immediate object of this article, from 

 which we have already wandered too far. 



The official account of the expedition of M. Freycinet, as pub- 

 lished by the French government, is divided into seven parts : 

 the History of the Voyage ; the Hydrography ; the Meteorology ; 

 the Philology and Vocabularies ', the Observations on the Pendu- 

 lum and Magnetism; the Botany; and the Zoology. Of this 

 latter department alone have we to speak. Its execution will be 

 sufficiently characterized by observing that it is such as was to 

 be anticipated in a national work supported by national resources^ 



