478 LETTERS OP A CITIZEN. 



dress a letter to your predecessor, in which he gave a plain state- 

 ment of the organization of the corps ere your reforming hand had 

 passed over it. That organization was approved by the late pres- 

 ident and the science of the country. The division of labours 

 among its several members was there set forth. How dared you 

 interfere with those arrangements after they had been completed ? 

 What excuse have you to offer for having done so ? Will you 

 again have the temerity to insult the country by asserting that 

 there was no room in your increased instead of diminished squad- 

 ron for the members you rudely struck from the list, after they had 

 prepared, under the plighted faith of the government, to join the 

 expedition, and were ready to set sail ? Was the calibre of your 

 mind only adapted to the little work of carrying out the puerile 

 but vindictive views of the Hon. Mahlon Dickerson, and were 

 you therefore incapable of acting in a noble and generous spirit, 

 as the friend of science alive to the honour of the expedition and 

 the true glory of your country ? When and where did you learn 

 that, even with the sanction of the executive, you could be justified 

 before the science of the country in lopping off the important de- 

 partments of Entomology and Cru-staceology, or that they could 

 properly be thrown upon the zoologists, who were already burden- 

 ed with more than they could perform ? Comparative anatomy 

 and philology, being matters of no account with you or your lieu- 

 tenant commodore, were summarily erased from the list of scien- 

 tific inquiry, and this, be it borne in mind, was an expedition chan- 

 ged from a naval to a scientific character, on which ground alone 

 this erudite and philosophic officer had been thrust into the com- 

 mand. Superb consistency ! The text and commentary assim- 

 ilate like oil and water ! 



But this is not all. The department of Natural Philosophy, or 

 Physical Science, the world-embracing labours of which the great 

 ARAGO would have assumed with modest diffidence, was struck 

 off from the list, because Lieutenant Wilkes, your commander, 

 fancied Heaven moderate the young gentleman's vanity ! that 

 he was competent to take the matter in hand, in addition to the 

 other duties devolved upon him ! ! ! To the vanity of this univer- 

 sal genius this second edition of the admirable Crichton you 

 sacrificed the interest, the honour, the science of the country. 

 The assistant zoological draughtsmen and landscape and por- 



