1 



Scientific Reviems. 351 



tfiade ; for, with individual exceptions, \yhere personal character was 

 deeply involved,* his taunts and accusations remain unanswered. It 

 is true that the author may be suspected of being led on by pri- 

 vate considerations, and of being warped by personal motives ; and 

 such a charge is generally darkened with a criminal aspect. But 

 even if such were the impulse, we consider it fortunate for his 

 country that it existed ; for we hold it to be of little consequence 

 to the public, by what private causes a national good is engender- 

 ed, if the character of the nation be not thereby affected. We 

 are disposed to admit that there is every probability that Mr. Bab- 

 bage is actuated by concealed motives ; for in the first place, he 

 has thought it necessary, in his preface, to disclaim what would 

 perhaps not have been otherwise imputed to him; secondly, he 

 betrays the reason why he passes so cursorili^ over the state of the 

 Universities, when he tells us that " the ties which connect him 

 with Cambridge are of no ordinary kind ;" and, in the third 

 place, he singles out for the main object of censure the Royal So- 

 ciety of London, and certain individuals in particular, when there 

 is so much " rottenness" in the whole of " Denmark." The 

 science of Britain is not disjointed : England is, generally speak- 

 ing, no worse than her fellow provinces. Why did Mr. Babbage 

 not travel north ? He might suppose that we were sufficient for 

 the Augean stable ; and we believe we have shown no relaxation 

 in the labour t. But if the author had been entirely impartial in 

 his investigation, he would have observed the mutual influence 

 which the science of each of the three United Kingdoms exerts 

 over the others ; and would not have limited his views to one por- 

 tion alone of the empire. 



- Nevertheless, in spite of all allowances, we hold the author's tes- 

 timony to be not a whit the less valuable, where facts alone are to be 

 considered ; although in matters of opinion it may perhaps be requi- 

 site to keep in recollection the situation and circumstances in which 

 he is placed. The author himself, speaking of anonymous publica- 

 tion, makes a just observation, which is also applicable in the pre- 

 sent case. " A matter of opinion," he remarks, " derives weight 

 from the name which is attached to it ; but a chain of reasoning is 

 equally conclusive whoever may be its author." 



• Dr. Roget, the secretary of the Royal Society, and Captain Sabine, have at- 

 tempted to defend themselves, in the Annals of Philosophy, which seems indeed to 

 have become a " refuge" for all " destitute" authors. The editors of that miscel- 

 lany, till lately so respectable, appear to have forgotten that one " cannot touch 

 pitch without being defiled." They are now publishing a personal attack on Dr. 

 Fleming the dichotomist, from the pen of Mr. Macleay the quinarian, which, in 

 point of low and ungentlemanly ribaldry, has no parallel even in Cobbett's wor»* 

 lampoons, or in the slander of the Lancet. We wonder whether the people con- 

 verse in such language at the Havannah ! 



•f Our exertions have, however, as yet, been confined to rather a limited dis- 

 trict. When we publish our extended researches, we imagine that we shall asto- 

 nish even Mr. Babbage. 



