1NTJU)[)1 CTJON. 



mass of misery on all the countries of Europe, that 

 they had more urgent wants to attend to, than the 

 undertaking of enterprises, the success of whicli 

 was so problematical ; nay, even in those under- 

 taken during this period, which promised a more 

 certain acquisition to the sciences, the consequences 

 of the all-destroying spirit of the revolution were 

 but too evident. This was the case at least with 

 the voyages of discovery undertaken from France ; 

 the expedition, for example, sent in search of La 

 Peyrouse, under the command of one of the ablest 

 officers of the French navy, having dissolved itself 

 before its completion, and that fitted out some years 

 later having likewise failed ; at least, the results 

 were not so brilliant as might have been justly 

 expected, from an expedition amply supplied with 

 every requisite: the reason, doubtless, was, that the 

 imperial French marine had not yet returned to 

 the ancient s})irit of order. Nay, if we would at- 

 tribute its failure only to the ignorance of the 

 commander*, who was not at all animated with the 

 spirit of discovery and science, still it may be easily 

 imagined that, under a different order of things, 

 no such choice would have been made. And, then, 



* It is remarkable, that in the journal of the voyage of 

 the Geographe and Naiuraliste, edited by Perron, the name 

 of the commander is not once mentioned, as if it had been 

 feared that the name of a man should go down to posterity, 

 whom fate had so undeservedly favoured, as to place him at the 

 head of a voyage of discovery. 



B 3 



