Review of Prof. Johnson’s Report on American Coals. 335 
cerned, might as well have been spared. Nothing appears more 
absurd than an ostentatious display of a desire to obtain informa- 
tion, and an unwillingness or incapacity to use it when obtained. 
During the last few years, the navy department has shown a 
very laudable desire to obtain such information as might be neces- 
sary to enable it to avail itself most successfully of the recent 
improvements in naval warfare. Too much credit cannot be 
given to those who have pursued, or who may hereafter pursue 
this course judiciously. It indicates a very proper conception of 
the importance of this arm of national defence, and inciden- 
tally leads to developments of valuable resources. As might 
be expected, some, perhaps many, of the experiments that have 
been instituted for this purpose, have not been very creditable in 
their results to those who proposed them, or beneficial to the 
government. But this must often be the case, particularly when 
they are not based upon strictly scientific principles. The ex- 
periments recorded in this Report, and the results deduced from 
them, are exposed to no such objection. The daily records show 
that no preconceived theory existed to give them a partial char- 
acter; whilst the labor bestowed in preparing and applying the 
most difficult formule proves that the great object was truth. 
To obtain this no care was deemed superfluous, no labor too great. 
The results of the researches have moreover been reduced to so 
practical a condition, that they are entirely within the compre- 
hension of the most common capacity. The eagerness with 
which this Report has been sought for, both at home and abroad, 
sufficiently indicates the great practical interest of the subject. 
Foreigners as well as our own countrymen, have begun to look 
to American coals, not only for the purposes of warlike and com- 
mercial navigation, but also as the direct materials and objects of 
trade. 
If under any circumstances tpers be wisdom in the maxim,— 
“in peace prepare for war,”—it was doubtless a most prudent 
measure to place our government in possession of all inform- 
ation which could tend to increase the efficiency of our navy, by 
developing the value of our resources in coal. Within a few 
years past a decided improvement has been observed in the tone 
and temper manifested by our public authorities relative to mat 
ters affecting the public intelligence. The most ultra and bigoted 
no longer scout as formely the labors of science, which are alike 
