474 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



present organization can fall short of the expenses of the former 

 organization, consisting of the Macedonian, Pioneer, Consort, Re- 

 lief, and Active ? I, for one, should like to see you attempt a de- 

 tailed comparison between the two. Will any practical seaman, 

 uninfluenced by hope or fear, say that the present plan is in any- 

 way comparable to the former one, as regards efficiency for navi- 

 gation in high latitudes, or for the protection of commerce, survey- 

 ing, or scientific research among the islands of the Pacific 1 Will 

 you, sir, be graciously pleased to enlighten the nation as to what 

 has been the cost of changing from a good to a bad plan, merely to 

 gratify but hold ! I will not allude to motives ; I leave them in 

 the recesses of your own breast, having little doubt that, before I 

 have done with your acts, the public will have little to conjecture 

 with regard to your motives. I will in advance, however, do you 

 the justice to admit that you have stepped most admirably in the 

 footsteps of your predecessor and coadjutor, who now reposes on 

 his laurels amid the cool shades and flowery walks of Suc-a- 

 Sunny. 



Very respectfully, your obedient servant and fellow 



CITIZEN. 



XVIL <*YM 



To the Honourable Joel R. Poinsett, Secretary of War 



SIR, 



In reviewing your official proceedings in fitting out the South 

 Sea Expedition, I now find myself at a point where your insin- 

 cerity and double dealing place you before your country in a 

 light which would, to a sensitive mind, be still more humiliating 

 than any in which you have yet been exhibited. I refer to the 

 injury and degradation which, notwithstanding your hollow pre- 

 tensions of patronage and favour, you have sought to inflict upon the 

 cause of science. I feel, sir, in its full weight, the responsibility at- 

 tached to the use of such language, and that I can only escape 

 by bringing the charge home to you, by fixing upon you a mark, 

 indelible while you live, and which may be among the few things 

 bearing witness to posterity that you have been. You are ambi- 



