222 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



voted in, but with six balls against him. I am at a loss to 

 guess the motive that induced the old veteran to wish to 

 belong to the Royal Society. I hear of no important works 

 on geology, nor of any new discoveries. 



TO DR. MANTELL. 



NEW HAVEN, April 11, 1848. 



DR. DAUBENY, in a late letter, accompany- 

 ing a copy of the new edition of his " Volcanoes," seems 

 half reconciled to our Mexican war, because, he thinks, 

 that the conquest of that country might open to my " ener- 

 getic countrymen " a free access to the Mexican volcanoes, 

 which, he says, if a younger man, he should be inclined 

 to visit, but would wait first for the Anglo-Americans to 

 establish order in that anarchical country. I should be 

 glad if any good might result from a war which has in 

 my opinion no adequate justification. A treaty has been 

 formed, and accepted by our Senate, with slight modifica- 

 tions, and has gone back to Mexico for ratification ; but it 

 will not be surprising if the government or faction which 

 agreed to it should vanish before its arrival, and thus make 

 it necessary to begin de novo, or to retire from the country, 

 or hold it by force of arms, so embarrassing is wrong- 

 doing in the beginning, drawing after it sometimes inter- 

 minable evils. I do not often occupy my letters with poli- 

 tics, but I am appalled with the news which every arrival 

 brings from Europe. The French monarchy and oligar- 

 chy swept away by a popular whirlwind ; in Austria, her 

 veteran minister and some of her princes become fugi- 

 tives ; the King of Bavaria an exile ; Prussia dictating to 

 her monarch ; Sicily and Italy in agitation ; and even Po- 

 land beginning to rise again from her grave. The reliance 

 of despots on their troops is failing them, as the troops 

 sympathize with the people, and are slow to shed their 

 blood. I hope these tumults will not reach you ; your peo- 



