LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 395 



the employment of naturalists will interfere with the claims to 

 those honours and distinctions which, by the common consent 

 of all enlightened countries, have ever been accorded to naval of- 

 ficers engaged in enterprises similarly noble, humane, and bene- 

 ficial in their objects ? Would their labours be other than hon- 

 ourable provided no naturalists were to accompany the expedition ? 

 Will you indicate how they can be less so because accompanied 

 by scientific men without nautical knowledge or pretension ? - * 



W T ere the military chiefs under Napoleon less distinguished be- 

 cause savans were attached to the expedition to Egypt ? Was 

 not the glory of the former rather embalmed and rendered more 

 imperishable by the discoveries of the latter ; and that, too, with- 

 out filching a single leaf from the laurel which inwreathed the 

 soldier's brow ? So will it be with all concerned in this under- 

 taking, and " A Friend to the Navy" will be foiled in his dark, I 

 might say malignant, efforts to sow the seeds of discord among 

 high-principled individuals, who feel the weight of responsibility 

 they have assumed, and be brought to feel that petty jealousies, 

 alike unworthy of officers and civilians, are harboured only in en- 

 vious and contracted minds ! ! ! 



We are next informed by " A Friend to the Navy" that expe 

 ditions sent out by other countries have generally been small ; and 

 that " among the most splendid exploring voyages of modern times 

 is that of the Astrolabe, a corvette of eighteen guns and eighty 

 men." 



Now, sir, allow me to inquire, how can you answer to the coun- 

 try for your late shocking prodigality in the force you have em- 

 ployed to make a few soundings on George's Bank ? Have you 

 not sent on that service a vessel of eighteen guns and eighty men, 

 besides an additional chartered force ? Surely you have lost sight 

 of the exposed condition of our commerce in the Gulf of Mexico, 

 of which we have heard so much, as well as of the wants of the 

 service on other stations, upon the requisite force for which the 

 South Sea expedition has made such fearful inroads ! Did the 

 duties to be performed at George's Bank call for a larger force 

 than that of the "most splendid exploring expedition of mod- 

 ern times ?" and yet you have employed a largei force upon it. 

 After this, it is hoped the country will hear no more about the 

 vast scale on which the South Sea expedition is authorized to be 



