LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 109 



Nor will I allow you lo justify any portion of your hostility to 

 the expedition on the unsustained assumption that I have created 

 difficulties or thrown obstacles in the way of iis earlier comple- 

 tion. As, however, you have chosen to speak of " the distin- 

 guished and lucrative situation assigned me'' I cannot refraia 

 from informing you that I feel no pride in the distinction your ap- 

 pointment confers on me ; that I would not turn upon my heel to 

 preserve it ; and that you are at liberty to take it back when you 

 please ; nay, more, that it is your duty to do so, if you were sin- 

 cere in saying that I " have created many difficulties in fitting out 

 the expedition." 



Why, sir, if you were consistent, the very charges you bring 

 against me ought to make me yom greatest favourite. When, un- 

 til in this instance, did you ever complain of any one for throwing 

 difficulties in the way of the expedition ? Indeed, rumour says — 

 and I have seen some things which went far in confirmation of 

 the thousand-tongued goddess having for once spoken truth — that 

 those who threw most impediments in the way of the enterprise 

 have been favoured with distinguishing marks of your regard, 

 and have obtained from you almost anything for which they 

 asked ; and, further, that, until very lately, the surest passport to 

 your good graces was to attack the exploring expedition. I have 

 heard it asserted that this ruse has been practised more than once, 

 and always with the same distinguished success. 



You say, in the conclusion of your third number, that I have 

 not only contrived to render myself ridiculous, " but to throw 

 some degree of ridicule upon the present exploring expedition ;" 

 and that " to divert this ridicule from the officers of the navy 

 who may embark in this expedition, and to confine it to its proper 

 source, and to show that the scientific corps selected are not of 

 the school of the savan in question, shall be the peculiar care of 

 A Friend to the Navy." Sir, this manifesto of your " peculiar" 

 intentions does not surprise me. It is only in perfect keeping 

 with your " peculiar" line of conduct towards me from the begin- 

 ning ; and I should feel surprised if it were not continued to the 

 end. I expect nothing from your magnanimity or your justice ! 



As regards my attainments, I am free to own they are far from 

 equalling my wishes, and by no means what I yet hope to make 

 ihem. Nevertheless, humble as they are, I can feel little anxiety 



