392 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



this character. And from the little previous know- 

 ledge requisite to discharge their duties, they 

 would be peculiarly appropriate and acceptable to 

 young men of science, already sufficiently acquainted 

 with mercantile concerns, or perhaps still engaged 

 therein, but who desire some little leisure for more 

 intellectual though profitless pursuits. There are, 

 for instance, five or six consulships, at the least, in 

 South America, where the duties seldom occupy 

 more than three or four hours in the day, although 

 the appointments are indispensable. Why cannot 

 we follow the example of France, in this instance, 

 at least, and give such situations to those who 

 (being duly qualified in other respects), are men of 

 science, desiring to visit other countries, and who, 

 in return, would enrich our national collections with 

 new objects, and our scientific transactions with 

 fresh discoveries? The supineness of our govern- 

 ment on this subject was particularly remarked by 

 some intelligent foreigners a few years ago, when 

 the Brazilian Consuls of Russia, Prussia, and France, 

 at Rio de Janeiro, were all naturalists, having 

 full leisure to perform their official duties, and at 

 the same time to collect and transmit to their 

 governments large and valuable collections of 

 Brazilian zoology. The English Consul, at one of 

 these ports, on the other hand, was an illiterate 

 person, who turned into his hammock, and dozed 

 and smoked away the greatest part of that time 

 which his official brethren were so beneficially em- 

 ploying. We remember that the British consul at 

 Athens in 1812 was a Greek, and we found one of 

 the vice-consulships in Sicily given to a Frenchman. 



