Scientific Reviews. 415 



The insufficiency of their salary obliges them to complete it at the 

 expense of the people ; and government shuts its eyes at these de- 

 predations ; for it is not sufficiently rich to pay those whom it em- 



)uch a picture may be considered as the last result of the imma- 

 ture measures of Peter the Great, — the necessary consequence of 

 giving an impulse to the riches and prosperity of a country, by en- 

 grafting the manners, creeds, and opinions of strangers, and chang- 

 ing the character of the people, instead of founding a national and 

 popular civilization, which progressively, and in the lapse of time, 

 would have become the bulwark of the nation's power, and the glory 

 and patrimony of all. 



Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, 

 Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. — Vol. I. Part I. With 

 Eleven Plates. Newcastle, 1830. 



What a consolatory sight it is to the lover of the study of nature, 

 •to observe the zeal and activity in the cause of natural history 

 which is now diffused throughout the land, after so many years of 

 indifference and sluggishness ! From a concurrence of happy circum- 

 stances, — from the peacefulness of the times in which we live, — 

 from the taste which has been excited amongst almost all classes for 

 the admiration and observation of nature, — from the general change 

 which has taken place in the style of our publications, the ponde- 

 rous quarto being converted into the convenient duodecimo, and 

 the mysterious language of science being translated into the verna- 

 cular tongue, — and, perhaps most particularly, from a certain know- 

 ledge of nature's works having been recognized as indispensable to 

 the gentleman and the man of the world, — Natural History is com- 

 ing to be promoted and cultivated amongst the elements of know- 

 ledge. The boudoir teems with the elegant publications whicli 

 emanate from the cultivators of this science ; facts observed, and 

 phenomena investigated, form the topics of ordinary conversation ; 

 ajid men unite themselves into Societies for the immediate prosecu- 

 tion of their favourite pursuit, in all those places where circumstances 

 have combined to facilitate their studies'. In the northern counties 

 of England, the naturalists have instituted a society of this kind, and 

 have chosen Newcastle as the most favourable seat for their esta- 

 blishment, — first, on account of the two great natural products of 

 coal and lead, for which that neighbourhood is so remarkable ; and 

 secondly, because of the great facilities which that town possesses 

 for making collections in the several departments of natural histo- 

 ry, in consequence of the many vessels which are perpetually trad- 

 ing out of its port to the various parts of the world. The advance 

 which this society has already made, is truly remarkable, though the 



VOL. II. 3 H 



