Progress of Geographical Discovery during 1820-30. 87 



the numerous members of this society* will be devoted to the 

 accomplishment of this work. But such happy results can 

 only be expected, when the disquiet, which at present harasses 

 the social body, giving place to the security afforded by the 

 establishment of peace, shall no longer turn the mind from that 

 progressive movement, which has, for some years, so success- 

 fully extended the limits of useful knowledge. 



The idea which presided at the foundation of the Geogra- 

 phical Society, is itself but a corollary of this proper direction 

 of the mind. It tends to associate the illustrious men of all 

 countries, admitting them to its bosom, and leading them, by 

 this fraternal bond, to communicate, from all points of the 

 earth, their projects, their observations, and their discoveries. 

 This society, of which Paris is the centre, and which is the 

 elder brother of a young and splendid rival, recently established 

 on the banks of the Thames, cannot behold, without a lively 

 satisfaction, coadjutors of a royal race assisting by their en- 

 deavours the advancement of its labours ; and it is rejoiced to 

 number amongst its correspondents a Prince who will eventual- 

 ly inherit one of the most ancient crowns of the north. f 



Our relations with the learned societies and academies of the 

 old and new world, are not diminished ; they continue to be 

 reciprocally useful. In exchange for the memoirs and other 

 publications of the society, their transactions enrich our library; 

 and we thii3, in our turn, obtain important information on 

 countries distant from France. The banks of the Ganges, of 

 the Delaware, and the St. Lawrence, as well as those of the 

 Thames, the Spree, and the Neva, Copenhagen and Turin, 

 Mexico and the Havnnnah, contribute to form this bond of in- 

 tellectual union; and, when we consider these marks of good- 

 will amongst learned men, and even amongst the mass of the 

 people, we may throw off the fear, that the hatred and antipa- 

 thies which once seemed to lake pleasure rn national distinc- 

 tions, will for ever continue their fatal influence, and arrest the 

 general progress of true civilization. 



An act which you performed in the month of March last, and 

 which was eminently dictated by a spirit of justice, of which 

 our country has oftcu set the example, is a striking and glorious 

 proof of my remark. You have done honour to the modest 

 perseverance and final success of efforts, for a long time useless, 

 in one of our countrymen, who, the fust to return from Tim.' 

 luctoo, is able to say, that he has seen with his own eves, the 



* From its foundation to the present day, the Geographical Society of 

 Paris has enrolled the names of 050 members on its list. 

 1 Prince Christian Frederick of Denmark, 



