332 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. - 
(233.) From such an example of scientific pa- 
tronage, emanating from a company of merchants, 
we turn with sorrow and regret to the next subject 
of discussion, namely, the support which zoology 
receives from the government of this country, —the 
most powerful and wealthy nation in Europe, whose 
pecuniary resources surpass all others, and whose 
profuse liberality, on almost all other subjects but 
those connected with science and art, nearly amounts 
to prodigality. We might, indeed, spare ourselves 
and our readers the humiliating detail which our 
present object imperatively demands, by summing 
up the whole with the confession that, excepting the 
British Museum, there is no national institution of 
any sort or kind for the teaching of natural history, 
for its prosecution or encouragement, or for the 
reward of its professors. Whether this indifference, 
or rather apathy, to a science so intimately con- 
nected as this is with religion, is expedient or 
politic, may be worth enquiry; but that it is un- 
exampled among civilised nations, is a fact too . 
notorious to be questioned. Before, however, we 
look further into this evil, let us take a general 
survey of the institution which forms the solitary 
exception above alluded to. 
(234.) The British Museum is the repository 
for the national collections of books, manuscripts, 
sculptures, and natural productions. It owes its 
foundation to the purchase, made by parliament, of 
the entire collections of Sir Hans Sloane, President 
of the Royal Society for many years, and one of 
the most eminent physicians and patrons of learning 
of the age in which he lived. There is a curious 
