SCIENTIFIC ADVISERS TO THE GOVERNMENT. 395 
botanists, and draftsmen, each taking some specific 
department, and prosecuting their researches on 
recent subjects. These new acquisitions are then 
published at the sole expense of the government, 
and in a style of magnificence worthy of a great 
nation. We need no other proofs of the talent thus 
called into action, or of the liberality which fostered 
it, than the splendid and invaluable series of zoolo- 
gical folios containing the discoveries of Peron, 
Quoy, and Garnot, Lesson, and those of the na- 
turalists and artists which accompanied the As- 
trolobe discovery ship, now in course of pub- 
lication. 
(271.) It follows, from necessity, that if men of 
science are once allowed, like other ranks in society, 
to aspire to the honours of the state, by the patronage 
and protection of “ the fountain of honour,” the 
government of the country possess, in them, the 
best advisers, and the purest means of information on 
all scientific questions, that can be found. But we 
must appreciate excellence, from a conviction of its 
worth, before we condescend to ask advice of others, 
and before we can be persuaded that we ourselves 
are incompetent judges. Solongas the influence of 
scientific knowledge upon the business of life is 
neither perceived nor valued, so long will its services 
be neglected, if not despised. On the other hand, 
when once this connection is seen and acknowledged, 
our philosophers will be looked upon as fit advisers 
on all occasions wherein their acquirements bear 
upon the question at issue. We are again compelled 
to cite the institutions of other countries as patterns 
for our own. ‘The members of the French Insti- 
