MR. HOPKINS'S OBJECTIONS. 473 



ed a map of the British Islands, marked with arrows, to 

 show the direction of the wind at the time of the storm of 

 January; and he maintained that the phenomena attending 

 that storm harmonized with, and confirmed the correctness 

 of, his theory. That gentleman also spoke of a number of 

 other storms which had occurred in America, the phenom- 

 ena of which, he also said, were in accordance with that 

 theory. It became, therefore, desirable to inquire into the 

 meteorological facts observed in the British storm, as they 

 were within our reach, not only on account of the intrinsic 

 interest that might attach to them, but as bearing upon, and 

 to a certain extent, testing, Mr. Espy's theory. This inquiry 

 would also enable us to judge, to some extent, how far his 

 mind was liable to be biased, by his theoretical opinions, in 

 his selection of facts. For it should be recollected, that the 

 accounts that may be had recourse to were numerous, and, 

 generally, very vague, and the inquirer had to make his se- 

 lection from amongst them. Now he would be naturally 

 inclined to think that account the most clear and reasonable 

 that accorded the nearest with his preconceived opinions;' 

 while accounts that militate against those opinions would 

 be liable to be put aside, as inconsistent with the supposed 

 laws and general operations of nature. Thus, in extracting 

 what would be called an intelligible account from various 

 obscure sources, that account would be unconsciously mould- 

 ed to suit the views of the party who made it out. We had 

 no ready means of comparing Mr. Espy's accounts of storms 

 in America with facts respecting them derived from other 

 sources; but it would be not unfair to presume, that the 

 same degree of bias, or of caution in avoiding it, existed in 

 drawing up accounts of those storms, as might be traced in 

 his account of the British storm. That, the inquiry might 

 be influenced as little as possible by a bias of this kind, he 

 (Mr. Hopkins) proposed to confine it to the facts given in a 

 pamphlet published shortly after the occurrence of the storm 

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