1841.] THE NATIONAL INSTITUTION. 109 



fall within the boundaries of the department in question, and follow them through 

 the usual subdivisions ; as, for example, if, in the above enumeration, we talfe only 

 legislation, in its whole extent, and particularly as applicable to the diversified 

 habits and usages of the different portions of our country ; or jurisprudence, which 

 embraces what the American jurists have called constitutional law ; international 

 law, (all important to us, both as respects our intercourse with foreign powers, and 

 as it affects the relations of each of our States to the others and to the Government 

 of the Union;) the administration of justice through all the States with as much 

 uniformity as practicable, and the harmonizing of the State laws with those of the 

 United States ; commercial law, in its widest sense, as relates to our own and other 

 nations ; the municipal laws of different foreign nations as compared with our own,, 

 or comparative jurisprudence — when we consider, I say, the vast field thus opened 

 to our investigation in only one portion of this single department of knowledge, 

 denominated moral and political science, and justly estimate the importance attached 

 to it in the organization and practice of learned societies in other parts of the civi- 

 lized world, we cannot but feel a strong conviction that the establishment of a se- 

 parate class or department for this would be no less useful than the provision made 

 for the mathematical and physical sciences. 



In respect to one of the branches I have mentioned, political science; I ought 

 perhaps (for fear of being misunderstood) to add, that all the subjects properly fall- 

 ing within that class arc, like the subjects of other sciences, to bo considered in a 

 strictly philosophical view, and without reference to the temporary feelings, or in. 

 terests, or motives which, unhappily, too often influence the decisions of the day 

 upon practical questions. The right adjustment of general principles may, indeed, 

 have a salutary control over these disturbing causes, and perhaps lessen their mis. 

 chievous effects. 



I observe, with much satisfaction, that a large number of the intelligent and well 

 educated officers of the Army and the Navy have been found entitled to a place 

 among the members of this scientific association ; and you will pardon me, I trust, 

 for adding to the length of this long letter, by mentioning, in this connection, a 

 striking fact, which came to my knowlege at an annual examination of the West 

 Point Military Academy two years ago, and which shows the great ssrvices that 

 may be rendered by those officers. A member of the examining committee, who had 

 then recently returned from Europe, stated that he happened to be at the zoological 

 establishment in London, when a large collection of natural and other productions 

 of different countries were opened for inspection, and of the whole number of pack, 

 ages, (seventeen,) no less then sixteen had been procured and sent home by British 

 officers on foreign stations. This fact at once demonstrates the value of the services 

 that maybe thus rendered by American officers, and the incalculable importance of 

 providing the means of thoroughly educating them, in order that they may know 

 the actual wants of the scientific world from time to time, and may be enabled to apply 

 their services with the greatest effect. Tlio extensive collections wliich will continuo 

 to be deposited in Washington, under the advice or direction of the National Institu. 

 tion, will, it is obvious, be a powerful instrument of accomplishing this object. 



The officers of the Army, I may add, will have many advantages in one particu- 

 lar department of our researches, in whicli tlic learned of Europe are earnestly 

 looking to us for exact and thorough information, which they consider it incuni- 



