616 AMATEUR NATURALISTS. 



would have been electric, its paralysing influence on the operations 

 of the Russians, whose general was compelled to change his ma- 

 noeuvres five different times, would have been decisive. 



We are aware that it will be urged that such a line of policy would 

 have thrown the weight of Austria and of Prussia into the opposite 

 scale. But could their open hostility have proved more fatal to the 

 cause of Polish independence than their treacherous neutrality ? So 

 far from it, the attention of these two states would have been attracted 

 to a more distant sphere of action to the Tyrol and Italy to 

 Westphalia and the Rhine, conquered dependencies, that only waited 

 till the tri-coloured flag was unfurled, to rise, and with one majestic 

 effort hurl the oppressors from their soil. But, alas, for the honour 

 of our times, a master-mind to conjure up this storm to save Europe, 

 was no where to be found. Poland has expired ; and from what is 

 passing in the East, the balance of power is now a political chimera, 

 and all this may be laid at the door of the doctrinaires of France and 

 their confederates, the Whigs of England. 



AMATEUR NATURALISTS. 



MANY of our readers are probably aware that the Earl of Bridg- 

 water bequeathed the sum of eight thousand pounds to be applied in 

 the production of a work on the Power, Wisdom, and Glory of God, 

 as manifested by the Creation conferring on Davies Gilbert, then 

 President of the Royal Society, the power of selecting the fortunate 

 author. The cautious president, however, divided the special trust 

 reposed in him with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop 

 of London. Of this great triumvirate, the first patent official act 

 was, instead of confiding the labour to one philosopher, to parcel it 

 out among eight namely, Mr. Whewell, Mr. Kirby, Dr. Roget, Sir 

 Charles Bell, Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Buckland, Dr. Kidd, and Dr. Some- 

 body-else, whose specific designation we forget. It has been ob- 

 jected to this arrangement, by an able writer in one of our most ster- 

 ling and upright periodicals, " that the testator's intentions would have 

 been more fully carried into effect by making it worth the while of a 

 man of acknowledged power to devote a few years to the completion 

 of the whole task. In that case," the writer continues, " he might 

 have bestowed his whole and undivided abilities upon the subject, and 

 thus struck out some novelty, and at any rate brought to bear the 

 entire weight of modern science on the labour." From this we must 

 beg to differ. Who, in a few years, or even in a life, could do so ? 

 No one. A man may be an admirable Crichton he may fence and sing 

 a merveille speak seven languages and dispute in the schools against 

 all comers ; but we rarely meet with one who has attained pre-eminence 

 even in any two or three, out of the many branches of science. Each 

 of these requires long research, and patient industry they are not to 

 be carried at a coup-de-main even by the most brilliant talent, however 

 strengthened it may be by an intimate acquaintance with some sister 



